Wednesday, July 26, 2017

Blackberry & Peach Seasons Winding Down

   We still have many thornless blackberries to pick, for the next 10 days or so.  'Apache' plants still have many very large berries, and 'Ouachita' plants still have many medium-large berries.
'Triple Crown' blackberry plants have many large, ripe fruit ready to pick now, plus still have many red berries that will ripen for the next 2 weeks.
   'Triple Crown', our latest-ripening blackberry variety, still has a large amount of ripe fruit now.  It will continue ripening for the next 2 weeks, and the plants will be heavy with fruit until about Aug. 5.  'Triple Crown' blackberries are large, have the smallest seeds and are the juiciest, so they're especially good for making jams and jellies.
'Triple Crown' blackberries are large, have the smallest seeds and are the juiciest, and I think they have the best flavor of our 4 blackberry varieties.
   Thornless blackberries are sold pick-your-own only.  They cost $2.55 per quart + tax, pick-your-own.  There are NO chiggers, and you can pick a quart of blackberries in 5 minutes.  We provide containers, and just ask that you return the containers to us for reuse on your next trip to Brenda's Berries.
   Weekday mornings are great times to come for those able to do so.  Come early to beat the heat.  We open at 7:30 a.m. Mon.-Sat. for berry pickers, but those who want only peaches should arrive after 9 a.m. to give our workers time to pick the peaches.  We're closed from 12 noon to 7:00 p.m.  We're open 7-9 p.m. each evening, but call 620-597-2450 in the afternoon to be sure we'll have peaches that evening.
   Our peach season is winding down now, since this year it started almost 3 weeks earlier than the average start date for peaches.  We're now harvesting 'Carolina Gold' yellow peaches and 'China Pearl' white peaches, and these will continue until about Aug. 5.  These are our last main peach varieties, and the trees are producing less than our mid-season peach varieties did, because these late-ripening peach varieties were hurt more by the March freezes.  Since there are fewer peaches on the trees, the peaches of these varieties are very large.
We're now harvesting 'Carolina Gold' yellow peaches (left box) and 'China Pearl' white peaches (right box), our last main peach varieties.  We'll have these for sale in limited quantities until about Aug. 5.
   Both these peach varieties are freestone, and I give taste samples.  Small amounts of peaches cost $1.30 per pound + tax.  We pick directly into 20-lb. boxes, which I then weigh to exactly 20.0 lbs., so you save $1.00 if you buy a 20-lb. box of peaches for $25.00 + tax (when we have them).  We also usually have some nice 2nds peaches with small hail-damaged spots or other surface damage, which sell for just $0.74 per pound + tax.
    Peaches are sold harvested; we do not allow customers to pick peaches.  Our trained workers harvest peaches each morning Mon.-Sat. when it's not raining.  Some days fewer peaches are ripe, and we may sell out by late morning or early evening.  We often have no peaches to sell on Sun. evening, since our workers do not pick peaches on Sun. morning as we're closed for church.