Author: Chautauqua Hills Farm

Hard to believe day 1 of the season is just now starting, but the harvest has finally begun. Many good berries were taken off the field today, but there are still a lot that are not ripe. With all the ripe and non-ripe berries mixed together, picking was a little slow, and did I say it was hot? Yes, it was hot!

If you’re scheduled to pick Saturday June 26, plan on taking a little longer than normal to pick, and make sure you check our website or facebook before you head out, there is rain scheduled through the night tonight and into the morning hours. We’ll post early if we’re rained out.

One final note, unfortunately our blackberries didn’t survive the late spring freeze. There will not be any blackberry sales for this season.

What a year.
We were all introduced to a brand new expanded vocabulary, you know, words such as Coronavirus, PPE, social distancing, flattening the curve, Moderna, and we experienced closures, isolation, quarantines shortages, escalating prices, and unfortunately for some of us, illness and worse. . but spring is here, a renewed beginning, and the belief that the worst is behind us.

Just a few weeks ago buds were opening, blooms were out and the bees were busy at work. As April shuffled in, the blueberry bushes appeared to be completely blanketed with blossoms, but as spring in Kansas does, the temperatures took a nose dive. Days and nights dropped to well below freezing, 26, 28 degrees and colder.

If you look closely at the blooms in the photo below, towards the top of the branch you can see some of the leftover blooms damaged by the freezing temperature. The blooms lower on the branch came on after the freeze and are set to produce good healthy berries.

The damaged blooms have mostly fallen off, replaced by new, and the first signs of berry production can be seen below.

Stay tuned, we’re getting all the rain we need, but the sun will come out, and the large sweet blueberries will follow.

This is always the hardest post to make each season, but after this morning’s pick, we are picked out of Blueberries. We want to thank all of you that came out to pick, and placed orders with us this season, and apologize to those of you that we couldn’t meet your requests. We were overwhelmed by the amount of people that came out, from our long time supporters, and from new people that likely found us from Covid related restrictions.

Blackberries continue to ripen, and will be available for picking in the next several days. Email us if you’re interested in picking blackberries. Thank you again for you support!

Stay Healthy,

The Chadicks

The thunder has moved out, and the rain has cooled us down (even dampened us a little) for a great morning of picking. If you had a reservation for this morning, we hope you can still make it out.