BC Berries

09/29/2025

The look of things to come. . . Hopefully by mid-week. There are a few of these clumps now, but a lot coming. Fall berry plants usually get one dense clump of 10-20 berries. The forecast looks great. No serious cold in October. If you didn't get to get summer berries, or didn't get enough, things look very good. You COULD be as surprised as Opie!!

Living where we do, we are often "gifted" with cats of various ages and contitions. Opie is our lated guest. He was so starved I don't know how he was still alive when we came across him eating tomato scraps on the way to the chickens. He is obviously NOT a feral, he loves to be held and starts purring just about the time you look at him. He's had his first trip to the vet for tests, shots, deworming, etc., and looks to be on the way to recovery. If you know anyone looking for a sweet boy to adopt as part of their household, send them our way. Already having 5 feral rescues in OUR household, we are just about out of room.

Have a great week folks. Look for those Fall Berry updates.

08/26/2025

FYI, anyone interested. We still have elderberries!

Update 8/28:
Thanks for the interest. Looks like everything we will have this year are spoken for as we now have a wait list. NEXT year, we are hoping our first patch, planted two years ago, will be producing for you-pickers. Keep your fingers crossed.
On the raspberry front, we are watering our fall berries. They look great, but dry. We will see if we can get them through this dry patch so fall berries will be plentiful and good sized. Stay tuned.

08/16/2025

Fall Raspberries and Elderberries.

Raspberry roots are perennial, but the life cycle of the canes is biannual. The canes that produced the summer berries have died out. In their place are the first year canes, that produce a fall crop of berries. The wet, cloudy weather of the spring was much to the dislike of the second year canes. Production was probably half of normal this year. However, the first year canes LOVED the wet weather and are bigger and more plentiful than we have seen them before. They are budding and blossoming now, getting ready to produce the fall crop. It looks like it will be a bumper year for that crop. So if you were unable to get what you wanted in the summer, stand by. Late Sept to the first of Oct. the fall crop starts, and it will run until we get a hard freeze. Frosts don't put the canes to sleep. It takes a serious notification from winter before they get the message.

We are in the process of growing elderberries. We have about a half acre planted, and more going in next spring. Our seed/test plants are doing fabulously, but there are only 4-5 bushes. Since they are producing way more than we need, we thought we would see if anyone was interested in some for elderberry jam, cough medicine, or any other uses. We have several 5 gallon buckets picked, still on stems. Weight of the berries on the stems is between 7-8 pounds. We think this amount will make two batches of jam, depending on how big a batch you make I guess. We have two buckets picked and in the fridge. If anyone is interested, they are $25 a bucket. Send us a message or call. We only have two at the moment, but there are plenty more on the stalks to be picked, so we can wait-list anyone who is interested and let you know when we have more if those are taken.

07/14/2025

Summer raspberries are 95% over. The hot days over the weekend dried out the remainder of the ripe ones to raisin like things, but not as tasty. Late season blueberries are just starting to get ripe, so if you come to get some blueberries, you are welcome to 'graze' a bit in the raspberry patch for a taste. There are a few that are still OK.

The new canes that produce fall berries in October are looking great. If you didn't get what you want/need watch for our fall posts.

Stop by anytime if you still need blueberries. Feel free to message us and we can give you current status. We get some pickers that do a great job hunting down all the ripe ones. If you show up after them, pickings a little tough. But if no one has picked in a few day, they are plentiful. They should be bearing for 2-3 weeks yet.

07/10/2025

Last call for red raspberries in any quantity. Pretty much everything is ripe. They are still smaller than normal, but not much to do about that. If you want to avoid disappointment in life, don't garden or farm . . . ;-) Fall canes look very good at this point, so second chance '25 will be fall berries in Oct.

Mid-season blueberries are ripe, and late season are starting. Come and pick as you are available. Weather has cooled a bit, and after 6:00 PM most of both patches are in the shade.

07/01/2025

This will likely be the best week for red raspberries. They are not as large or dense as usual, but there are lots of ripe berries. Just takes a little more browsing. We have seen a lot of dried up blossoms that appear to have not been pollinated. We are assuming the constant rain kept the bees from doing their work. But considering that most years, many, many berries go unpicked, fall off and become chipmunk food, there should be plenty for humans to pick anyway.

Blueberry bushes are loaded. Only problem there is if the person just before you picked all the ripe ones. We have some folks who LOVE blueberries and when they pick, everyone after them gets to wait a few days for more to ripen. If your preference is blueberries, contact us for patch status, or just stop by if you wish. Since we have early, mid-season, and late blues, we will have them until early August.

We also have our maple syrup, rendered honey, honey in the comb, and Ellen's elderberry cough syrup available at the tent. Hope to see you soon.

06/23/2025

Berries are ripe and ready to pick. Blueberries are looking great. raspberries . . . so so . . .

We had a warm spring so the early blueberries didn't get any cold nite nips. And the weeks of rain and no sunshine seems to have had no negative effects on them. They are very full, and larger than usual. We have early, mid, and late blueberries. The earlys are about 50% ripe, and the mids are starting to ripen too.

Red raspberries are ripening and a fair amount ready to pick, but frankly, they aren't pretty. The weeks of rain and no sunshine has the early ones small and . . . well . . . kinda ugly! They taste fine though, so if you are looking for berries to juice or jelly, they will work fine. The good news is, with the warm sunny days finally here, the ones coming on look like they will be back to normal in size, look, and taste.

So if you're looking for Blues, they are waiting on you. If you're looking for pretty Reds, they will be here by week's end. If you just want the taste for your jams and jellies, come anytime you like.

After 6 in the evening a good portion of the patches are in the shade. And, as always, early is good too.

Prices are same as last year. $3.00 per pint for Raspberries, $2.00 per pint for blueberries. We also have prices calculated by weight, so we can measure and check your treasure that way too. ;-) See you soon :-)

06/13/2025

Mid-June Berry Update:

Well, it's not quite Mid-June, but the berries seem to think so. The lack of late cold snaps in the spring has accelerated the berries calendar. That's good, and possibly a problem. . .

The early blueberries are loaded more than they have been in years. None of the blossoms were nipped by late frosts, so there will be lots. A few are starting to turn. Possibly some will be ready to pick by next weekend. Stay tuned.

The raspberries are loaded as they always seem to be this time of the year. And some are actually starting to turn, about a week earlier than normal. Usually, when the random berry here and there starts to turn, we are a week from enough ready to pick. That being the case, next weekend should be good to go . . . Unless . . .

Raspberries prefer warm dry weather, with a shower every 3-4 days. That's not the forecast for the next week. The problem is that if they are too wet, too long, when they ripen, they mold. Those first berries will ripen and the mold can take out the whole bunch, even the ones not yet ripe. And we have no way to stop that. We will post an update early next week. Hopefully NOT of molding berries. But one way or the other there will be berries to pick next weekend, maybe picking around the moldy ones.
:-(

Final note. We know some folks who have two 6 month old male border collies who are looking for a home. They are free, but if you or someone you know is interested, the potential new owner(s) need to invest in land! Border collies are not apartment dweller dogs. They need lots of room to rip and tear. If you know of any potential good homes, message us for details.

Keep your fingers crossed. 🤞🤞🤞🤞🤞🤞;-)

05/16/2025

Red Raspberries and Blueberries are doing their Spring-thing. For the first spring in 2-3 years, we did not have a late frost, so the early blueberries are fully loaded. These are the smallest, but sweetest, in my opinion, of all three we have. They will be ready about the same time as raspberries. The raspberries have gone from buds to blooms and just need a few days of sunshine for the bees to do their job, and they will be ready starting mid to late June. But if you can't wait for a taste, Aldi's has them for $5 for 6 oz, about a half pint the way we measure them. Stay tuned. We will let you know.

01/27/2025

As you can tell from the berry stalks in the pics, berries are not quite ready . . .;-) But maple sap is beginning to run. I needed some food grade totes to collect sap. I looked around locally and the only ones I could find were pricey @$130 each. So found some and I drove up north of State College to pick up the ones I needed for maple sap and bought a trailer load to sell down here to anyone else looking for some for sap or just collecting rainwater for drinking, watering, animal water, etc. I have 8 of these super clean food grade totes. I believe these are the 275 gallon size. They came from a distillery and previously held vodka. As a result they are 1) easy to rinse out and be ready to go, and 2) very likely sterile from the high alcohol content. The ones that had cooking oils in them take a lot of work to get cleaned out if you want to put water or sap in them. I have them posted on market place for $100, but any BC Berries folk that want one can have them for $90. Just let me know if you are interested or have any questions. If not, see you in June!!

10/23/2024

I friend of mine is looking to find good homes for 5 cats. Like myself, she lives in the country, so occasionally gets 'dump off' cats from jerks who aren't responsible to find homes for them themselves. Three 10 week old kittens and three juveniles about 7 months. Of the kittens, one of the calicos pictured, the two yellow kittens are available. The black/calico kitten is spoken for. Two of the juveniles are yellow/white. One is male, the other is female I think. The black/calico would be female. I don't know the gender of the yellow kits. Calico is obviously female. Message me if interested and I will refer you. To my BC Berries followers, please indulge my non-berry post. :-) Thanks.

10/22/2024

Fall berries have been kind of a bust this year. After a very dry summer, when we watered when we could, the plants are a bit stunted. They did start producing about the end of Sept, then we had a week of rain. All the ones that were ripe or nearly ripe were ruined by mold. Now that we are back in a dry spell, there are berries again, but not near the normal fall crop. If you REALLY want some, and willing to put a lot of effort into picking, there are some here. Just let us know and come on out. There are lots of green ones on the canes, and they will be ripening slowly until the first hard freeze. Frost doesn't usually stop them, it takes a hard freeze.

Otherwise, if we don't see you, have a blessed Christmas and Holiday season. See you next June, after winter, maple syrup season, and an always beautiful spring. 🍁🍁❄️🌬⛄️🪻🪻🌱🌿

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