I do appreciate a u-pick place with a "snack as you pick" policy
[This post was going to be a fair bit longer, but I think the rest of what I've written needs reviewing and should be its own post anyway. We'll see what happens with that.]
Today we (
scruloose, Ginny, Kas,
wildpear, Pumpkin, and I) headed to Dempsey's Corner with the goal of picking a variety of fruit--cherries, blueberries, raspberries, and currants were all on the list. We had minimal luck in the sense that we only came back with a significant amount of one of those; the blueberries were only starting, and the currants situation was a bit confusing (not interesting enough to type out), and the raspberry bramble situation was...sad. In future, I think I'll stick to getting raspberries from the place we went last weekend, which was amazing (and I want to check out their blueberry situation too, since that's their main thing there).
But the cherries at Dempsey's were fantastic. Between us we picked eighteen pints, all but two of which are of a dark red variety (the other two pints are a lighter, multicolored [orange/reddish/yellow] variety). I forget how many varieties of cherries they have--several--but I don't know if it's different kinds available at slightly different times, or if we basically got only these two kinds because we picked our eighteen pints from only a handful of trees that were overflowing with bounty.
A strange feature of cherrypicking: every once in a while, a noisy recording (animals howling, that sort of thing--I forget the details) would start up, which we assume has to do with keeping too many birds from dropping by and eating up all the fruit.
I don't know how many cherries the others ate, but I had a lot, and didn't even need to do my usual thing of going to the cash with my pickings and then paying for another pint on top of what's there. Dempsey's has a very reasonable $2 admission fee for picking and for going in to see the baby farm animals (their "petting zoo"), and it also includes eating as much fruit off the tree/bush as you want, as was clearly explained. Works for me!
So in addition to the picking, we got to befriend a pair of bull calves, a pair of baby goats, and a couple of lambs; some chicks may also have been scooped up. ^_^ And at the end of the day, we were the only people still in with the animals (we'd finished picking and had paid, and were saying our goodbyes) when one of the staff (a woman we wound up interacting with a few times, who seemed lovely) came out to give the animals their bottles and put them back in the large fenced area where they stay overnight. (She explained that their animals, which aren't working animals, tend to be from mothers who have difficulty or die during the birthing, so the Dempsey's people bottle-feed and tend and give attention to the babies.) And visitors to the farm get to help out, so that's what we did. ^_^
scruloose and I bottle-fed goats, and Ginny fed a calf, and I'm a little fuzzy on what exactly
wildpear and Pumpkin were doing feeding-wise, since we were all surrounded by hungry farm babies who were mobbing us for their dinner. (Kas was taking photos. I think he said he shot around 350 today.)
All in all, it was very successful. *^^* Tomorrow evening we're going out to meet recessivejean for dinner, and when we get back, we'll pit and freeze most of the cherries (except for the ones that're getting tossed in the dehydrator). Later in the summer/early fall I want to go back for peaches and plums, at the very least (since I want to get blueberries and fall raspberries from the other u-pick). And then we need to figure out what to do with them all! (And the four [?] pints of raspberries still in the freezer.)
Oh, and
scruloose and I also came home with a few preserves: he got the...I think it's peach/lime/jalapeño sauce?...and I got a jar of strawberry/plum jam (since strawberries are over for the season, so we can't make any of that) and a jar of honey/cinnamon spread. Dempsey's is multipurpose enough that they have their own hives, which is pretty great. Maybe someday we can take a look.
Originally posted at http://umadoshi.dreamwidth.org/613958.html. Comment here if you like, or comment there using OpenID. Comments at DW:
Today we (
scruloose, Ginny, Kas,
wildpear, Pumpkin, and I) headed to Dempsey's Corner with the goal of picking a variety of fruit--cherries, blueberries, raspberries, and currants were all on the list. We had minimal luck in the sense that we only came back with a significant amount of one of those; the blueberries were only starting, and the currants situation was a bit confusing (not interesting enough to type out), and the raspberry bramble situation was...sad. In future, I think I'll stick to getting raspberries from the place we went last weekend, which was amazing (and I want to check out their blueberry situation too, since that's their main thing there).
But the cherries at Dempsey's were fantastic. Between us we picked eighteen pints, all but two of which are of a dark red variety (the other two pints are a lighter, multicolored [orange/reddish/yellow] variety). I forget how many varieties of cherries they have--several--but I don't know if it's different kinds available at slightly different times, or if we basically got only these two kinds because we picked our eighteen pints from only a handful of trees that were overflowing with bounty.
A strange feature of cherrypicking: every once in a while, a noisy recording (animals howling, that sort of thing--I forget the details) would start up, which we assume has to do with keeping too many birds from dropping by and eating up all the fruit.
I don't know how many cherries the others ate, but I had a lot, and didn't even need to do my usual thing of going to the cash with my pickings and then paying for another pint on top of what's there. Dempsey's has a very reasonable $2 admission fee for picking and for going in to see the baby farm animals (their "petting zoo"), and it also includes eating as much fruit off the tree/bush as you want, as was clearly explained. Works for me!
So in addition to the picking, we got to befriend a pair of bull calves, a pair of baby goats, and a couple of lambs; some chicks may also have been scooped up. ^_^ And at the end of the day, we were the only people still in with the animals (we'd finished picking and had paid, and were saying our goodbyes) when one of the staff (a woman we wound up interacting with a few times, who seemed lovely) came out to give the animals their bottles and put them back in the large fenced area where they stay overnight. (She explained that their animals, which aren't working animals, tend to be from mothers who have difficulty or die during the birthing, so the Dempsey's people bottle-feed and tend and give attention to the babies.) And visitors to the farm get to help out, so that's what we did. ^_^
scruloose and I bottle-fed goats, and Ginny fed a calf, and I'm a little fuzzy on what exactly
wildpear and Pumpkin were doing feeding-wise, since we were all surrounded by hungry farm babies who were mobbing us for their dinner. (Kas was taking photos. I think he said he shot around 350 today.)
All in all, it was very successful. *^^* Tomorrow evening we're going out to meet recessivejean for dinner, and when we get back, we'll pit and freeze most of the cherries (except for the ones that're getting tossed in the dehydrator). Later in the summer/early fall I want to go back for peaches and plums, at the very least (since I want to get blueberries and fall raspberries from the other u-pick). And then we need to figure out what to do with them all! (And the four [?] pints of raspberries still in the freezer.)
Oh, and
scruloose and I also came home with a few preserves: he got the...I think it's peach/lime/jalapeño sauce?...and I got a jar of strawberry/plum jam (since strawberries are over for the season, so we can't make any of that) and a jar of honey/cinnamon spread. Dempsey's is multipurpose enough that they have their own hives, which is pretty great. Maybe someday we can take a look.
Originally posted at http://umadoshi.dreamwidth.org/613958.html. Comment here if you like, or comment there using OpenID. Comments at DW: