Foraging and U-Picking the Abundance of Summer

Summer foraging is one of the great pleasures here on the farm, and with the abundance of harvest-able crops right now it doesn't take much of a field walk to fill a bushel basket and one's tummy all at the same time. A typical walk for me starts in the apple orchards. August is a special time when the trees hang heavy with fully sized apples maturing and showing their true colors as they ripen.

In order to anticipate when it's time to start picking, I do a lot of sampling from different locations on both the individual trees and around the orchard. This year it's especially tricky since the spring bloom spanned over a much longer period, resulting in uneven maturity and ripeness. The Sommerfelds and Pink Pearls are the ripest. The Galas and McIntosh are not far behind.

Heading back to the barn with half-munched-on apples in my arms, I can't resist making a detour to snack on a row of ripe, still unpicked red raspberries.

It's a team effort and dynamic dance right now to keep up with the workload. Days are long to keep up with all the harvesting, packing, loading, and delivering. Fieldwork can't fall behind as we are already preparing for fall and winter.

The best way to experience the farm's bounty at this point in the season is to come and visit the farm. At this time of year we won't limit the U-Pick to just dry-farmed tomatoes, but encourage you to also explore other parts of the farm where you can pick Raspberries, Blackberries, and Cherry Tomatoes.