We found that the berries are ripening faster than we thought – so we will open tomorrow Monday July 10 for raspberry picking.  We still plan to be open at least Tuesday and Wednesday of this week and then close for a day later in the week if needed for more berries to ripen.

Weather looks better Monday than Tuesday, so come see us tomorrow.  Picture shows berries this morning.

We will open for raspberry picking on Tuesday July 11 – the weather for Tuesday does not look great, but there will be plenty of ripe berries.  We expect to be open Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday as well, if ripe berries hold out.  Probably will be closed Friday July 14 for more berries to ripen for the weekend.

Cherries are beginning to ripen but are still small and very tart – expect picking to start on the weekend July 15 & 16.

Picking boxes will be in the small raspberry house – bring your large white box from last year  for a dollar discount.

Raspberries and cherries are still not ripe yet.  We need some more warm weather to help the green fruit ripen.

It looks like we will not open before Tuesday July 11 – maybe later.   I will post again as soon as we have more info.

Lots of green berries as of July 3

The wet weather has been good for both our raspberries and apples and some amazing ferns along the snowmobile trail just below the raspberries.

The picture below shows a lot of green raspberries on the three year old Boyne variety in the upper field.  Depending on how much sunshine and warm weather we get, they will probably be ready for first picking around July 7 or 8 – watch the web.

The cherry crop is moderate this year – more than last year, but not like 2015.  There are MANY cedar wax wings hanging out in the cherry trees waiting for the fruit to ripen, so it may be a challenge to get cherries picked before the birds do.  They will not be ripe for at least a week after raspberries start.

Apples are growing well – picture shows some McIntosh now over an inch in diameter.   The big challenge now is to avoid being hit by hail – so far the storms have gone either south or north of us.

I will post again when we have a better idea of when berries will be ripe.

We are off to a good start.  There was good weather for a few days during bloom and the bees (both our imported bumble bees and quite few native bees as well) were able to get out and pollinate the flowers.  You can see in the photo small apples that are now 10 mm (3/8 inch) in diameter and there are quite a lot of them.

We are now trying to get a window in the weather when it is not raining and not too windy so we can put down a weak acid thinning spray.  The goal is to remove some (but not too many) of the apples, so that the remaining ones grow larger.  It is a balancing act – if too few come off, then we have a lot of hand thinning – if too many come off the harvest is smaller.

There is a moderate set on the cherries and the raspberries are getting ready to bloom.  Raspberry harvest usually starts first week in July – plus or minus depending on the weather.