The hardest part of growing and maintaining a blueberry orchard is waiting for the small little bell like flowers to turn into berries and then waiting the eternity it takes the berries to turn from green to blue. I have, in past years, caught small little boys with mouths full of green berries. Today was the day, I have been monitoring the blueberries and there are some that are ready to pick (before our birdie friends figure it out first).
I sounded the call this morning that we would indeed be picking our first fruits and everyone was out and ready to pick. This year our harvest will not be that great. I neglected to prune and fertilize last year due to a tiring pregnancy but it is certainly more than enough for our families use. As soon as we pick the last berries we will be pruning every bush down to shoulder length, which I am not sure has ever been done before we moved here, and then fertilizing and mulching with pine bark as well as pine needles from across the street in the 800 acres of pines. Blueberries love acidic soil and pine needles are excellent for this. Next year, I hope to be able to sell off some of our bounty, well, maybe the year after that. The other surprise was that we picked 4 more peaches today. Gotta love it.
Last note, as you can see in this pic, we have purchased a food scale in order to keep track of how much food we are able to produce from our land each month and then try to improve the amount next year. Stay tuned for the tally ho.
