Now that my travel series to Michigan's Upper Peninsula is over, I will be spending the next few weeks highlighting some of our local travel adventures. I know it's January and not the time of year to go blueberry picking, but with all my summer gardening chores, I really do not have time in the summer to write up these kinds of posts. Plus, I figure why not allow my readers some time to read about them now, so they can plan for next summer? I did have one reader comment recently how nice it was to see pictures of flowers on my blog during the dreariness of winter, so that's another good reason! You will see lots of gorgeous flowers in this post! So let's settle in, put the winter blues aside, and start dreaming of summer shall we?
Every year my husband and I go blueberry picking. I pick enough blueberries for the year. I don't can them or anything, I just freeze them to use in smoothies and other recipes. We normally go to the same orchard, but this year a friend recommended another place so we decided to give it a try. This one is located in the rolling hills of Maiden Rock, Wisconsin. The beautiful country drive is worth going here alone!
When we first pulled in to Rush River Produce I could not believe how crowded it was! There were cars and people everywhere! "Where did they all come from?" I wondered "This place is in the middle of nowhere". The family run farm must get this amount of business every year because they had plenty of parking with signage to boot!
We started walking, eager to pick our berries, but I immediately became distracted by all the beautiful flower gardens! Oh my! It was a feast for the eyes!
This purple poppy seemed to dominate the landscape. I don't know what variety it is, as I've never seen anything but an orange or red poppy before, but it was gorgeous and so prolific!
Beyond the poppy gardens are the blueberries. The farm grows 14 different varieties of Blueberries, and you are allowed to taste test before you pick away!
I grew Dill in my vegetable garden for the first time last year and I was amazed at how easily it grew and what a beautiful plant it was. So I was not surprised at all to see Dill used as a border plant in these flower gardens.
The vegetable garden was equally impressive. Just look at all that colorful lettuce! And those onions! I couldn't believe the size of them. Mine never grow that big. I kept wondering what their secret was because their soil didn't look all that great and they don't even mulch!
In addition to poppies, they had lots of tall hollyhock too!
After strolling through the flower and vegetable gardens we headed out to the blueberry fields. My oh my! It was huge! Where did all the people go? We didn't know where to begin. Rush River Produce has nine acres of blueberry plants!
The rows between the blueberry plants are nice and wide so there is plenty of space to move around. The ground was a worn down lawn so I never felt uncomfortable, like I was walking in weeds or brush.
Even though we brought our own buckets, the farm lends you these easy to use carriers to aid you in your blueberry picking!
We had no problem finding lots of blueberries to pick. I like to pick mine when they are still light, like in the photo below. Other people wait till they turn that dark purple and are slightly mushy. To me they are over-ripe at that point. These will ripen more at home as it takes awhile to process them. If I pick them to plump and purple, they can get mushy.
Hubby worked diligently picking away, but I still was the faster picker and picked a lot more blueberries than he did.
A ha! There's some other blueberry pickers!
After we filled two pails of blueberries we went to pay for them. On the way out we saw more beautiful flower gardens. Just look at the size of these clematis plants!
We had so much fun picking blueberries and strolling through all the beautiful gardens at Rush River Produce. However, I don't think we will go back as their blueberries are a lot more expensive than our usual place. It was a fun adventure, and it was good to try someplace new, but we pick blueberries for economical reasons and not just for the experience.
Have A Great Day! Amy
Linking Up with these Fabulous Blogs HERE!
Michigan is a great place for fresh blueberries in the summer - you certainly picked a bunch.
ReplyDeleteWe sure did! I still haven't finished them all!
DeleteAmy, really, this is a brilliant idea to share your blueberry picking in February! It's a lovely nudge to remember that spring will come, summer will arrive, and the berries with it. Thanks for the dose of color and life and energy on this grayish winter day. Bless you for it!
ReplyDeleteThank you! I'm glad you enjoyed this post.
DeleteLovely post Amy, it was indeed delightful to see flowers in winter! Dill in the border, top tip! I love dill. Thanks for linking.
ReplyDeleteThanks Gail. Yes, I've never seen dill in the flower garden before, but it looks lovely doesn't it?
DeleteYou have such a lovely garden. I followed your blog from Floral Friday Fotos. The poppy is a gorgeous color. Your vegetables look so healthy and strong.
ReplyDeleteThank you, but it's not my garden. This is a garden I visited.
DeleteWhat an amazing place for blueberry picking and the flowers look absolutely stunning!! Great idea to freeze them for future use! Wish that place was closer to me.. I checked and it's almost 6 hours away. The veggie garden looks so nice too! I was never able to grown decent sized onions either.
ReplyDeleteYes, that is quite the distance to go blueberry picking, but there are lots of other beautiful attractions around here if you ever want to make a vacation out of it!
DeleteThose blueberries does look outstanding. We took our grandkids for blueberry picking on a nearby farm and we all had so much fun, especially afterwards with them sitting next to the orchard and munching on those freshly picked berries.
ReplyDeleteThanks so much for participating and sharing at #WW 12. See you again next week!
I wish my grandkids were around when it was time to go berry picking! That would be fun!
DeleteIt's so nice to see the lovely gardens and great you had a good experience there berry picking, even if you wouldn't go back again! We've taken the kids strawberry picking before but we haven't tried blueberry picking!
ReplyDeleteAnd I've never been strawberry picking. I wanted to go this year, but there are hardly any strawberry fields nearby. There are a ton of blueberry farms though. Odd. We must have the perfect growing conditions for blueberries.
DeleteOh wow, that is quite the haul. I have never been blueberry picking before.
ReplyDeleteYea, I think we picked too much as I still have a ton left in my freezer.
DeleteWow, so very beautiful. What a cool time. Very nice.
ReplyDeleteIt was a lovely day.
DeleteThe place looks incredibly beautiful, in my region we can only relish upon those store brought expensive blueberries , which surely can't match the taste of those freshly picked berries. This place looks a treat to eyes for every Nature lover, I startled upon blooms of Oriental poppies as they are rarely seen in my region. Thanks for sharing with Garden Affair.
ReplyDeleteYou're welcome! I'm glad you enjoyed it!
DeleteThat does look like a lovely place to explore! We often pick wild blueberries across from our house right here at the lake but they can be hard to harvest since we're in kayaks. While I never loved blueberry picking itself since it tends to be so hot that time of year that they ripen I do miss getting lots and lots of them (for free!) from my husband's great aunt. She used to have fields and fields of them and they taste amazing when they are freshly picked.
ReplyDeleteWell that's great you can get them for free. We usually go picking in the morning to avoid the heat. I think of all the self berry picking, blueberries are the easiest. Strawberries grow so low to the ground and raspberries have thorns.
DeleteI sure miss berry picking! I live in Colorado now and don't see berry farms anywhere an more. I love seeing your pictures. (And, wow, they have a lot of other great stuff at the farm, too. Love the hollyhocks.) Thanks for sharing this post at the Will Blog for Comments #24 linkup!
ReplyDeleteOh, I think it would be amazing to live in Colorado! There is so much to do and see there!
DeleteAmy, berry picking is so much fun! It looks like you had a fabulous time. I'm happy to let you know that I will be featuring your post tomorrow at the Crazy Little Lovebirds link party. I hope you will join us. :)
ReplyDeleteWe did have fun, especially looking at the gardens. That's awesome news that you will be featuring my post. Thanks so much!
DeleteOh my goodness it sure was a feast for the eyes for sure. How fun!
ReplyDeleteThanks so much for sharing this with Sweet Tea & Friends this month sweet friend.
It sure is! You're welcome!
DeleteThose blueberries! I'd love to add some to my own backyard. They would compliment the raspberries we grow. Looks like Maiden Rock, WI should be on the, To Visit list.
ReplyDeleteYes, hubby and I decided to try planting blueberries as they seem to grow so well in this area. And the Maiden Rock area is beautiful and attracts a lot of tourists. There are some really cute river towns, like Stockholm and Fountain City, and of course the famous Great River Road which provide miles of jaw dropping scenery of the Mississippi River and the Driftless Region.
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