The time is right for blueberry u-picking

If you hurry, you can take advantage of a great family outing and come home with lasting memories and a bucket of blueberries. Last weekend, I traveled to Blueberry Bunch Farm in LaBelle where I went blueberry-picking and had a great time getting my fill of delicious berries out in the fresh air where you could put COVID-19 in the background for a while, and enjoy yourself.

Blueberry Bunch Farm offers U-Pick blueberries through May 17 this year. Picking blueberries turned out to be easy. Florida variety blueberries, unlike strawberries where you bend to the ground or blackberries & raspberries that threaten you with thorns, grow on tall bushes with smooth leaves. You just move down the wide, mowed rows of six feet high (or so) blueberry bushes. Pluck the ripe ones off a branch and fill your pail! Of course, some berries have to find their way into your mouth to “sample.”

The atmosphere was one of delight and joy. There were families with young kids carrying their sand buckets and you could overhear shrieks of laughter when they plucked a berry (“but I want the red one – no, you want a purple one, dear.”)  There were adult children accompanying their elderly parents who promised blueberry cobbler, young professionals, teenagers - all laughing, texting and sending photos to their friends as to the wonderful time they were having. I think I enjoyed hearing the laughter, conversations and singing as much as picking the berries.

Upon arrival at the fields, you are given a plastic pail and turned loose to work a row among the 50,000 blueberry bushes. Although the fields had already been harvested commercially, there was no shortage of berries ripening with more to come. The berries are sold for $6 a pound and a filled pail (5 pounds) costs $25. No, they aren’t inexpensive but you pick the ones you want to keep and how much is an experience worth?

Social distancing signs are posted and the only place you

really need to be aware of it is when you get in line for an empty pail and when you pay upon leaving. Free-standing handwashing stations are available.

The farm is located at 2754 Howard Rd, LaBelle, FL 33935. It takes about 1 ½ hours to drive there from Englewood. They are open for U-pick Friday through Sunday, 9am to 2pm, and they close for the season on May 17. If you go, you will want to take a hat, sunblock and water as there is no shade nor refreshments. However, some kids who lived across from the entrance to the farm, had a thriving lemonade stand.

Blueberry Bunch Farm has planted 9,000 organic blueberry bushes with the plan to offer organic berries next season. If you like blueberries and want to try picking your own, it couldn’t be easier and for me, it certainly made for an enjoyable outing with berry fun. Even if I had blueberry stains on my fingers afterwards!