Author: Chautauqua Hills Farm

We’ll be adding more to this post soon, but for now we just want to let you know that you’re welcome to sign up for picking reservations that will start in approximately the third week of June, and place orders to be picked up in Wichita, Winfield, Derby, Sedan, and at the farm in late June and beyond! Make sure you’re signed up to receive our email newsletter and are following us on Facebook, and check back soon for a detailed post with lots of pictures and info. Tell your friends and plan a berry-picking adventure and we’ll see you at the farm!

It’s always with mixed feelings when we close another harvest season. Sad that it’s ended so soon, but happy about the berries, people, and experiences we had.

This past weekend depleted our 2021 harvest. If you currently have a reservation with us, unfortunately, it will need to be cancelled. Hopefully, you’ll try us again next season. It’s disappointing when we don’t have enough harvest to fill every request, but this season was a challenge.

Two days after the late Spring freeze in mid-April it appeared like we’d lost our entire crop, but seemingly, miraculously, new blossoms begin to appear, followed by what later became large sweet blueberries, and we actually had a harvest, not a large one by any means, but still a harvest.

Thanks to all of you that came out to pick, placed orders, shopped the farmers markets and generally continue to provide your support. We truly appreciate you, and hope to see you all back next season.

The Chadicks,

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.