Picking raspberries is a lot of fun and very rewarding. Our berries love it too. Nothing gets them more excited than when they see you and your family and friends come into the fields. If you listen very, very hard, you may hear them say, “Pick me, pick me!” (Only dogs, very expensive scientific equipment and little children have been known to hear them).
The following suggestions will only make your picking experience more magical:
- Wear a wide-brimmed hat and long sleeve shirt.
- Come dressed for the farm. Older clothes and shoes you don’t care getting stained with raspberry juice are perfect. Our raspberries do not care if you are wearing the latest fashion.
- Wear sunscreen, especially in the late afternoon. Tops of ears and neck are important areas to remember with sunscreen – especially for children.
- Insect repellent if you wish
- You might want to bring some snacks and water for little ones.
- Bring your own containers. Shallow containers are much better than deep ones. Many customers save their strawberry clam shells or sherbet buckets to pick into. Fastening the bucket around your waist with some twine or rope makes for convenient hands free picking. We do have a few flat boxes for containers if you forget so don't hesitate to ask. But once they're gone, they're gone. You may get containers and flat boxes for free at grocery stores, Sam’s Club and Costco.
- Bring a camera! You will want to take pictures of your family out on the farm.
- Our raspberries love children…who are supervised by moms and dads. Show the kids how to pick the berries.
- Raspberries come in red, yellow and purple, but all our berries are red. Pick only red berries that are ripe to assure the freshest and tastiest berries around.
- Use your thumb, index and middle fingers to create a “tripod” to pick the berries. Take hold of the berry and gently pull. The berry will slide off its cone. If the berry is not ready to be picked, he will tell you by making it harder to pull. Let him be. He will probably be ready the next day or two. When a berry is excited and ready to be picked, it only takes a gentle pull to pull him off the cone. Remember – berries want to be picked, but only when they’re ready.
- And the most important tip of all…is to have a great time. Pick all the berries you can and store them up for the winter in your freezer or in jam.
