If you can’t wait to pick pumpkins or apples, there is another fruit ready to be plucked.
Michigan has a short strawberry season that has already started.
Twins Paul and Peter Blake own Blake Farms in Armada.
“You’ll get down low on a plant and use your hands to lift the leaves, you’ll find all the big berries that way,” Paul said.
Paul says strawberries are good on short cakes, but they’re definitely not “a piece of cake.”
“Crop looks excellent. They are a hard crop to grow,” he explained. “You’re fighting the frost nights in the Spring. You’re fighting the cold winters. Today we are irrigating the strawberry patch to get moisture and to cool them down.”
The varieties that thrive in Michigan’s soil are some of the sweetest you’ll find anywhere, Paul said.
“A lot of people don’t even put sugar on it when they make jam,” he added.
Blake Farms is offering strawberry picking that’s $1.89 for every pound picked.
“We had a favorable winter," Paul said. "We were able to protect the strawberries with straw on them. We had a mild spring, so they didn’t get frost damage.”
The picking season is about 10 days and it started a few days ago.
“People need to know they need to come out now,” Paul said.
Nothing will be wasted because Blake’s will take their strawberries and offer jams, slushies and donuts.
But get them soon, another fruit is on the way.
“Raspberries a week from now," Paul said. "Then we will go into cherries about that same time and then we move in to vegetables and eventually apples and Christmas trees, so we are pretty diversified, trying to have something for the families all year long here.”
For more information on Blake Farms, visit www.blakefarms.com.
