Augusta (WQOW) - Today marked the first day one area
farm allowed people to pick blueberries. It comes nearly a month ahead of
schedule, but unlike some other crops, blueberries have done well in the
weather.
"This is the
earliest it's ever cropped up,"
Pickers were out at Augusta U-Pick Blueberries
already this weekend, nearly three weeks earlier than normal according to owner
Cathy Weiss.
"They've been
calling, asking when we're going to be seeing the berries, and they've been
excited. The phone's been ringing off the hook, and they're excited to see it's
early."
"We just started
our advertisement early. The people that have been here in the past, we have
them on a mailing list and we send them out a post card so they've received
those early. A lot of times people have been out here before, maybe didn't get
a postcard but are starting to call. And they're making that phone call a
little bit earlier because they know the strawberries and other fruits seem to
be coming out a bit earlier. So they're making a phone call a little
earlier."
The customers that came out for the
first day had lots of berries to choose from.
"Production seems
about the same, I think the frost hit some of the buds a little early so we may
have lost a little but it's really hard to tell from what we can see."
While the crop is early, unlike
maple syrup and apples, the berries didn't suffer many effects from the unusual
weather this year.
"Definitely with
the lack of rain we've had to irrigate them quite a bit earlier than we
normally do but as long as they're getting plenty of water, with the heat and
everything else they're growing just as good as they always have."
