Blueberry and Blackberry Picking

The last day of July in Harrisburg area was a little cooler and cloudy compared to other days earlier in the month. It was also Eid-Ul-Adha. The combination made the perfect sense to spend some time outdoor and picking fruits was a great way to do that.

So I assembled my travel companions which included my wife, mother-in-law, and the 9-month old son. We headed out to a short distance from home, Mount Airy Orchard in York county.

Upon arrival, we were welcomed by a drizzle which only lasted a few minutes just enough to rush us into the car but not enough to absorb the humidity. The sky was kind and remained cloudy even after the shower and provided us the much needed shade from the July sun.

None of us had had the experience of picking fruits from a commercial orchards before, we also never saw blueberry or blackberry or apple hanging from trees. This was an adventurous experience waiting.

To begin, we collected our buckets from the counter and entered the blueberry field next to it. The field was nicely secured in all sides by a net to prevent wildlife from entering the orchard and eating the blueberries for free and also contaminating the fruits with diseases.

We picked around two pounds of blueberries before we quit. My son and I felt safe enough to eat some while we picked the ripe ones. 

We then lazily went to the blackberry field which unlike the blueberry field wasn’t protected by anything. We found the fruits weren’t as ripe as blueberries and realized that we were in the early part of the picking season for the blackberries. Very few ripe blackberries were hanging at height. We still managed to pick around a pound of ripe blackberries.

We also made a short trip to the Sunflower field. Under the afternoon sun, the flowers were facing east, the opposite from the sun. At this point everyone was tired enough to come back home. We ended the day with some ice cream and milkshake with fresh peach grown in the same farm. Everyone enjoyed the day.