Red raspberries have finally arrived in good quantity. You may pick them up Blueberry Hill and by the yellow Raspberry Shed by our Market Barn. Yesterday we picked over 600 watermelon: traditional red with seeds, red seedless, and small sweet yellow watermelons. Great for your Labor Day picnic. Both watermelon and raspberries will be available in good quantity at the Princeton and Peoria Farmers’ markets.

It won’t be a fantastic blackberry year, but they are fairly plentiful now, and they are big and delicious. We plan to be open for picking Wednesday and Saturday. You may pick the declining blueberries on the same trip.

A good turn out today picked most of the blueberries that were ready to pick. We have changed the picking schedule to be closed tomorrow, Thursday. There should be some, but not many, available Saturday. Blueberry picking will now be self-serve. That means there may be no one available to show you the best place to pick — you will have to look. “Seek and you shall find,” is an appropriate quotation. If you pick on a bush, please pick it clean, but you may skip around rather than follow flags as we usually do.

Blueberry picking is closed today. Another 2 1/2 inches of rain this morning has made the road too muddy. Expect great picking Monday.

We just had 2 inches of rain in about a half hour, making Blueberry Hill road a real mess. We have closed the blueberry picking until Saturday. We expect the road to be fine by then.

We will be open for Blueberry U-Pick on Thursday evening from 4-8 pm. Less than half of the field will be available since we had heavy picking today and we need to reserve some rows for berries to send to the Princeton and Peoria farmers’ markets. There are plenty of berries ripening, so if you want to pick large quantities, next week would probably be a better time. If you just want a smaller amount, there are still some good sections for picking.

As part of the Bureau County “Communities in Bloom” program, Plow Creek Farm is giving free farm tours on Saturday. Tours leave from the Market Barn each hour from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m. We plan to give rides on a wagon behind a tractor to our market garden and up blueberry hill to the blueberries, blackberries and raspberries. You can stay and pick blueberries an hour if you like and come back with the next tour.

A huge crowd this morning has done a good job picking all the ripe blueberries. We have no more to offer today or tomorrow. We will open again Monday.

We are running low on containers for you to take the blueberries that you pick home in. If you can bring your own boxes, mixing bowls, tuperware containers, old strawberry flats, or other containers to bring your berries home, we would appreciate it greatly. We would be glad to receive any donations of old boxes, strawberry flats, or other appropriate containers for other customers to use. We would like to be able to continue providing containers without having to charge for them, but this may change in the future if necessary.

Blueberries are now in season. The first two rows of blueberries, Bluettas are quite ready and the next two rows, Patriots have a fair number. Some of the Spartans in rows 11 and 12 are also ready.

We plan to bring blueberries to Princeton Tuesday and Saturday and Spring Valley on Thursday.

Many other rows look about at the stage the first two rows looked at a week ago. We plan to open for U-pick on Monday, June 30.

It’s a good time to come pick strawberries.

This may seem late, but strawberries are still at their peak. They are thick on many rows. The average size has declined, but there are still some very big ones to be found. I have been picking about 2 flats per hour, and have picked over 5 flats in some rows. Some have spoiled because they were not picked in time, but the large majority are in excellent condition with more berries ripening each day.

We also plan to have a goodly quantity of berries at Princeton Farmers’ Market Saturday.

Tueday, June 17 is the first of our monthly special Tueday afternoon markets. This Tueday’s plans include:

Ribeye sandwiches served by the Princeton Chamber and the Princeton Young Professionals. 4:30 pm—6:30 pm

Chef Monika from Chestnut Street Inn will be preparing a dish made with locally-grown foods found right there at the market! 5:30 pm

Kids! Learn about dairy foods and milk a pretend cow. 6:00 pm—7:00 pm

FREE Blood Pressure checks provided by Perry Memorial Hospital. 3:30 pm—7:00 pm

And Plow Creek will have a hillside full of strawberries for sale, along with salad fixings and other spring produce. AND Plow Creek Bakery goodies!