The Treasures of Picking Your Own at U-Pick Farms

Visiting the Berry Patch Farm in Nevada, Iowa

One of my favorite parts of summer is visiting local u-pick farms with the boys and picking (and eating) berries to our hearts desires. What a treasure in the juiciest and sweetest berries you will ever eat.

The boys have so much fun learning how fruit grows and honestly end up with more in their bellies than in their baskets. It’s a joy to watch.

Not only is this a fun experience to have with your family, but it’s so frugal! You do save quite a bit of money by picking your own and buying them directly from the farmer in bulk. With all of the berries, I freeze, jam, and make syrup. On this particular trip, I picked 12 pounds of blueberries for $30.00. At the farmers market, a pint can cost about $4.00 – $5.00! At the Berry Patch Farm, where we picked, they were selling them at $2.50 a pound. That’s quite a bargain for local chemical free berries! They were so plump and sweet that we ate about 3 pounds of them fresh!

By picking your own fruit, you also start to learn about eating in season. Which fruits grow during what part of the season. Strawberry season has already passed as well as blackberries and the first round of summer raspberries. We’re now into Blueberries and fast approaching are fall raspberries, peaches and apples. I encourage you to seek out local berry farms and orchards. I’m sure if you check out their website, they’ll have a great listing of what’s in season, what has passed and what’s to come!

To find a local listing visit, www.localharvest.org. If you’re from Iowa, make sure to stop by The Berry Patch Farm for the best in Summer berries and apples!

About Diana Bauman

Diana is a mother of three, proud wife, and humbled daughter of God. She finds the most joy meeting with Jesus in her organic gardens. She is completely blessed to be able to call herself a stay at home mom where she home educates her children, joyfully serves her husband, and cooks nourishing, real food, for her family. She loves connecting with people on facebook, google+, pinterest, and instagram.

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Comments

Belinda @zomppa says
July 30, 2010 at 10:58 am
Fresh berries in the summer. What can be better. They certainly would agree!
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Priya (Yallapantula) Mitharwal says
July 30, 2010 at 2:35 pm
I so agree with you. It is a great feeling to pick your own 🙂
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girlichef says
July 30, 2010 at 4:01 pm
And the kiddos love it!! So true…I've been a slacker this year, but I've been meaning to get over to a U-Pick blueberry farm on the other side of town before they're all gone!!!
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Lana says
July 30, 2010 at 10:59 pm
I am so envious! I miss our U-pick farms in Ohio. I took the kids all the time to pick tomatoes and peppers… Now we live in the agricultural "mecca", California, and there are no pick-your-own farms around:( We'd have to move north to get close to one of them.
So, enjoy yours, and I'll live vicariously through your experiences.
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~Maria says
July 31, 2010 at 11:05 am
Hi, Diana! Do you know of a place around here to pick your own peaches and pears? I really want to can some this year and as tempting as it is to go crazy with the 25c per pound ones at Wal-mart right now I'd rather find local/clean ones. Any thoughts? I'm not having any luck. ~Maria
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tigerfish says
August 3, 2010 at 2:26 pm
I enjoy the U-Pick farms a lot. I have tried strawberries U-pick and Ollalieberry U-pick 🙂
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Angela Lux via Facebook says
June 28, 2011 at 1:59 pm
I planted two small blueberry bushes at the edge of my garden this year – in hopes that in years to come we can have our own little harvest!
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K Louise Ford via Facebook says
June 28, 2011 at 2:44 pm
@ Angela about 4 years ago we planted our first blueberry plant in a container and this last bare root season we added 2 more plants. Well yesterday hubby picked a batch and ended up with a quart of blueberries : ) they were super easy to to grow.
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