Well, they didn't last long

The strawberries, that is. At least here in southwest Michigan. All the local patches (including my strawberry patch that meanders around some of our raised beds) wrapped up the strawberry season over the weekend. The strawberries started early and left just as quickly as they arrived. We made the most of them and enjoyed fresh strawberries on cereal, pancakes, waffles and ice cream. I ate countless bowls of strawberry shortcake as well. In fact, with that in mind it is probably just as well that the season is over - at least as far as my waistline is concerned.

Here is what our local orchard, Corey Lake Orchards, had to say about the season -

Due to the early spring heat, everything is running about 10 days to 2 weeks early this year. It’s almost unheard of for strawberries to be over and to be in the middle of cherry season during the middle of June!

Sounds like we had better get our fill of cherries as quickly as possible - they might go just as fast as the strawberries.

Another great local market for asparagus, strawberries, and blueberries is Riverland Farm Market. They are supposed to have Michigan blueberries in starting this Friday, June 25th.

Went above our goal and picked nearly 50 pounds of blueberries this morning

After our previous trip to the blueberry patch resulted in over 20 pounds of blueberries my wife and I knew that we would need to shoot for a goal of 40 pounds in order to have enough blueberries to freeze and enjoy all year long. We went above and beyond that by picking over 47 pounds of blueberries at Locke's Fruitful Acres just north of Volinia, Michigan. The picking was easy and you just can't beat the fun of picking your own blueberries and chatting away while you work. We honestly didn't know that we had been there for three hours when we were all finished. I now sit here typing this with sore shoulders, aching back, burning calves and the satisfaction of knowing we have enough blueberries put up in the freezer to enjoy at least one pound each week. Fresh Michigan Blueberries in the summer taste great and are extremely enjoyable. Eating blueberries in the winter over hot cereal, in pancakes, or pies is a great way to remember and appreciate the work it took to have such a treat in the winter and it helps (in some small way) to get through those darkest and coldest of winter days.

There's still plenty of blueberry season left so be sure to get out and enjoy some fresh Michigan blueberries! :)

Time once again to pick blueberries in Michigan

I noticed an uptick in the number of people finding our humble little blog here when they searched for "picking blueberries" or "u-pick Michigan blueberries" and the like. So, I figured it must be that time again when one of the tastiest Michigan fruits were ripe for the picking. A quick call to our favorite local blueberry farm, Locke's Fruitful Acres, confirmed that the picking has indeed begun. One huge local blueberry producer here in southwest Michigan, Leduc Blueberries, will not be having u-pick this year due to "due to extreme winter conditions." My goal this year is to pick around 50 to 60 pounds of blueberries. I had joked about it earlier this spring with my wife as we ran out of frozen blueberries that we had picked last summer that this year we needed to pick at least enough to have one pound of blueberries a week all year long. So, that's the goal anyway.

Locke's said their picking season will last about three weeks so we'll be making a couple of trips over there. It's too hard to pick 60 pounds in one morning with a couple of kids running around. Picking about 30 pounds per visit is much easier. I'll post our results later in the week :).

The blueberry picking season got me thinking about my favorite fruit produced here in Michigan. I would say that blueberries are my absolute favorite. How about you? Vote in the poll for your favorite Michigan produced fruit.

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