We are open for u-pick Saturday rain or shine

We will open for u-pick strawberries tomorrow morning Saturday, June 24, 2023. The strawberries do not care if it is raining so rain or shine the patch is open till it is picked. From now through next week is the peak of strawberry season. That said I have seen much higher peaks than this year has. I just returned from walking the patches. There is a nice amount of berries out there with picking conditions somewhere in the middle- not terrible or wonderful. I judge that this will just be the way it is this year as the total crop is limited. Daniel

U-pick Strawberries Wednesday

We will open the strawberry patch for u-pick tomorrow afternoon June 21,2023 starting at 2 pm. There is NO Morning picking tomorrow. I just returned from walking through the strawberry patch. I am seeing quite a lot of ripe berries through out the whole patch. Picking conditions will be fairly good (considering the year) I estimate that we can pick 1,200- 1,800 quarts tomorrow. After tomorrow the next u-pick is Saturday morning. Peak season is between now and the end of next week.

Hours for u-pick are Monday starting at 7 AM; Wednesday, starting 2 PM (no morning picking on Wednesdays); Saturday, start 7 AM. This repeats through out the whole season. The patch closes when the berries are all picked or at 6 PM.
When you arrive you do not need to stop at the stand to weigh your containers if you know the empty weight already. Also you do not need to stop if you are picking into standard Quart or gallon containers.
You have the option of bringing your own containers or buy empties from us. Quart boxes 25 cents each. If you are buying empty containers from us please pay when you get them rather than after you are done picking to minimize confusion as to what is going on.
NO DOGS in the field or stand areas. We will be using the same random picking pattern that we did last year. This means that you may start anyplace you wish in the patches that are open as long as you are not cutting in front of someone. It is mandatory that when you are picking that all the ripe berries are picked as you move No roaming or grazing type picking. A section of row must either be picked or not picked when you leave. We will be scouting the patch and keep suggesting where you will find good picking.
Pricing u-pick: $4 per Quart if less than 8 quarts and $3.25 per quart if more than 8 quarts; $26 for an 8 quart tray and $12.50 for 4 liquid quart buckets, water pitchers, bowls and other similar sized containers. All containers are expected to well filled but not heaped. We will adjust prices up or down as needed for over or under-filled containers. By the pound price is $2.20/# (limited to bigger containers or larger amounts). By using volume rather than weight when it makes sense we can bypass the stand for most of the berries and reduce congestion. If you pay by credit card there is a 3% surcharge added to the above prices and you will need to use the inside checkout station rather than outside express options. Daniel

U-pick info for Monday June 19

We will open the strawberry patches for u-pick tomorrow morning (June 19, 2023) starting @ 7 am. This is still the beginning of the season. The berries are nice but you will travel quite a bit of row and also look at a lot of green tip berries. I estimate that there may be 400-500 quarts to pick in the morning. I judge that it is likely that we will close the patch to incoming pickers about 8 am. The farm stand will be open in the morning only as long as we are there for u-pick customers. It will then be closed for the rest of the day. We are closed on Mondays this summer except for strawberry mornings. The farmstand is open Tuesday- Saturday from 10 am – 6 pm. The garlic scapes are ready so enjoy them during the few weeks that their season lasts.

Hours for u-pick are Monday starting at 7 AM; Wednesday, starting 2 PM (no morning picking on Wednesdays); Saturday, start 7 AM. This repeats through out the whole season. The patch closes when the berries are all picked or at 6 PM. Daniel

Strawberry u-pick update

We plan to open the strawberry patch for the first u-pick picking of the season tomorrow morning (June 17,2023) @ 7 am. This is an unusual strawberry season. We had a 30 degree night about a month ago when the strawberries were just starting to bloom. This freeze damaged a lot of the earliest flowers. The berries that are ripening now are from the flowers that were open at that time that survived and set fruit. Right now I estimate that there are a few hundred quarts of ripe berries out there. They are fairly nice but expect to travel quite a lot of row for a fairly small harvest. Mondays picking will also be very light. There is a fairly large amount of very green berries on the plants that I estimate to be 7- 14 days out from ripening yet. There is almost nothing that is 3-5 days out on the plants so the next few pickings have little potential. There are still flowers also so it looks to me like this will be a very spread out strawberry year with potential to still be picking into early July. There will be very few or no prepicked berries to purchase at the farm stand tomorrow. I am delighted with this cooler rainy weather. The majority of the strawberry crop for this year is still very green and is being greatly benefited by the rain and cool. God’s rain is superior to mans irrigation. I have been growing strawberries in this area since 1998. This is our 25th year- a quarter of a century.

Hours for u-pick are Monday starting at 7 AM; Wednesday, starting 2 PM (no morning picking on Wednesdays); Saturday, start 7 AM. This repeats through out the whole season. The patch closes when the berries are all picked or at 6 PM. Daniel

Tomatoes, Lettuce, Cucumbers and u-cut Flowers.

Field lettuce is coming on at full strengh- there is various red and green leafy lettuces along with romaine and summercrisp types. My daughter thinks a field of lettuce ready to harvest is like a work of art. It is beautiful. We are somewhat overstocked on cucumbers at the moment. The tomatoes are slow but we are picking the first few forerunners of the coming abundance we expect from our greenhouse. I just recieved 90 lbs of beautiful red tomatoes from Nathen Zimmermans greenhouse which are at the stand today. This is the last week of asparagus harvest. Strawberries are just starting. The supply this week is very limited because we lost a signifigant amount of the earliest flowers to the freeze a while back. Next week strawberry supply should be more normal. Cool rainy weather now is excellent for the strawberries to grow big and sweet . We plan to open for u-pick starting Saturday.
We have free u-cut flowers this summer as we have in the past. I planted a bigger patch too! Mostly they are still little yet however there are poppies and wildflowers out there now. Daniel

2023 strawberry Information

Strawberry is season here. There are a few ripe berries in the field now so we are picking for the stand starting today. (We have about 50 quarts picked at the moment) We had a freeze a while back that damaged quite a few (but not all) of the earliest flowers so the season is beginning in an unusual way in that there is just a scattering of berries that are ripe now. I am going to send our own pickers out to get them as they are so scattered. The strawberries like it slightly cool and are really glad for this rain. Irrigation is not as good as rain. Hot weather ripens them faster but does not give as good of a berry.
We are opening for the first u-pick picking of the season Saturday June 17, 2023 starting at 7 am. I expect that picking conditions should be reasonable by Saturday however I will post again Friday about picking conditions when I know more. Peak season is still 7- 10 days out. Strawberry pricing for 2023 is the same as last years prices.
We will be continuing many of the changes from last year as they worked well. During busy times there will be an outside express checkout option for berries that are being bought by volume not weight.

Hours for u-pick are Monday starting at 7 AM; Wednesday, starting 2 PM (no morning picking on Wednesdays); Saturday, start 7 AM. This repeats through out the whole season. The patch closes when the berries are all picked or at 6 PM.
When you arrive you do not need to stop at the stand to weigh your containers if you know the empty weight already. Also you do not need to stop if you are picking into standard Quart or gallon containers.
You have the option of bringing your own containers or buy empties from us. Quart boxes 25 cents each. If you are buying empty containers from us please pay when you get them rather than after you are done picking to minimize confusion as to what is going on.
NO DOGS in the field or stand areas. We will be using the same random picking pattern that we did last year. This means that you may start anyplace you wish in the patches that are open as long as you are not cutting in front of someone. It is mandatory that when you are picking that all the ripe berries are picked as you move No roaming or grazing type picking. A section of row must either be picked or not picked when you leave. We will be scouting the patch and keep suggesting where you will find good picking.
Pricing u-pick: $4 per Quart if less than 8 quarts and $3.25 per quart if more than 8 quarts; $26 for an 8 quart tray and $12.50 for 4 liquid quart buckets, water pitchers, bowls and other similar sized containers. All containers are expected to well filled but not heaped. We will adjust prices up or down as needed for over or under-filled containers. By the pound price is $2.20/# (limited to bigger containers or larger amounts). By using volume rather than weight when it makes sense we can bypass the stand for most of the berries and reduce congestion. If you pay by credit card there is a 3% surcharge added to the above prices and you will need to use the inside checkout station rather than outside express options. Daniel

Blue House Work Party

The Blue House resturant In Madrid had a fire in the prep kitchen a few weeks ago. The fire investigation is finished and the huge job of cleanup and repair has begun. The structure is still intact with the fire mostly contained to one room however everything throughout the whole place is covered with a nasty sooty smoke residue along with water damage.
Yesterday we had a workday (with a small group) to start the process of removing contents.
The next step is a larger work party that is scheduled for this Thursday evening (June 8, 2023) We plan to start at 5 pm and work till 8-9 o’ clock. Come anytime in the evening as your schedule allows. The goal for the evening is to clean walls, ceilings, windows, tables chairs and everything else. Melted eletrical boxes and lights need pulled out, trim removed, some areas more sheetrock needs to come down etc.

Bring your favorite cleaning tools such as buckets, sponges etc. Power is off in the building so we need lots of work lights. Also we will need a few step ladders pry bars, screwguns etc. We are planning to serve a picnic style supper at some point during the evening. If you plan to eat, bring finger foods to share with the group. If you have questions you can call me (Daniel) @315 265 1246. This is an event that is ideal for older children and adults but it is not a good setting for small children in the building. Josh Taillon and his wife started the Blue House in Madrid just a few years ago. He is a very good cook and uses the best food he can find. He is also outstanding in trustworthyness and treats the local farmers with care and respect. They will emerge from this strong. Join us as we give a hand in helping clean up from this fire. Daniel

Cucumbers and spinach

We have the first Spring seeded spinach at the stand starting today along with the first field lettuce. The lettuce heads are still teenagers so are fairly small and taste delicious. We have generous amount of cucumbers from today’s picking (about 4 bushels) We also have the normal asparagus, herbs, rhubarb scallions etc.

I hope that we get a good rain as the fields are really dry and the air seems hazy and smoky like it needs a good washing. I wonder if the smokiness could be from the wildfires in Canada.
The strawberries are not close to ready yet. They normally start around June 14-18th time window. We had a freeze a few weeks ago that damaged most of the earliest flowers so it looks like what would have been the first 1 or 2 pickings will be nothing. There are lots of small green berries on the rest of the flowers. These huge temperature swings and no rain are not ideal either so I expect a mediocre strawberry season- not disaster, not awesome. Daniel

Weblog Entry

It feels like summertime on the farm with warm nights and the sound of the irrigation pumps running. Yes it is that dry already. The strawberries are in peak bloom and need about 2 inches of water per week for the next three weeks. The young transplants also are not rooted deeply yet so need a bit of water. We are picking cucumbers from the greenhouse now ( still limited amounts) and there are lots of regular onion scallions ready to harvest. If anyone needs frozen peeled garlic keep us in mind as there is still quite a lot of that left. We just cut the last of the greenhouse lettuce heads and the field lettuce is still one to two weeks out yet before harvest begins. I expect the first spring seeded spinach to be ready by sometime next week. Daniel

Strawberry update

The farmstand has an assortment of early spring goodies such as scallions (onion and garlic) rhubarb, asparagus, lettuce and kale. Also there are still beets carrots and potatoes. Mendy has baked a nice selection of honey wheat and sourdough bread and the bulk food room has flour, oatmeal, spices etc. This summer the stand is open every day from Tuesday through Saturday. We are closed on Sunday and Monday. We had a freeze here this week. At 11 pm it was already down to 30 degrees however it warmed up a bit towards morning. The relive humidity was around 60 percent during the cold night hours ( very dry) and there was some wind. One can irrigate the strawberries to help keep the frost off as water releases some heat as it transitions from water to ice . This only works though if the relitive humidity is high (near 100% with dew forming) with low or no wind speed. Water can not evaporate if the humidity is at 100% so evaporative cooling is not an issue in a normal frost. In a dry freeze such as we had this week the evaporative cooling effect will drop the leaf and flower temps to a few degrees below ambiant if some zealous farmer goes out and makes them wet. Do not put water on in those conditions as it is harmful not helpful. Covers do very little in wind. I judged that the best thing to do was to go to bed and sleep and hope for the best as there was nothing I could do that would be meaningful The later kinds of strawberries were not blooming yet so there was no damage. The earlier kinds lost anywhere from 20-50% of there flowers so this will effect the crop but is not a disaster as the remaining flowers will take up some of the slack. What would have been the first picking is gone. This was harsh winter for small fruit as the temps were up and down a lot with the snow melting from time to time. We also had a lot of wind which blew the leaf mulch off of them in areas. This has resulted in some damage but is again not disaster. There is enough damage though to some of the new plantings that I am thinking to plant a extra acre of berries this spring ( in addition to the 1 1/2 acre that is normally planted to replace old beds.)and not to renovate all of what was planted last year. Late May is the peak of asparagus season. During moments of abundance we will sell unbunched field run asparagus at $2.75 per lb if you take at least 1/2 lug. Daniel