It may have rained a little during the early afternoon Saturday, but that did not stop a family from picking blueberries at a Parke County orchard.
Terre Haute resident Tami Burris, accompanied by stepdaughter Cherokee, 21, and granddaughter, Lily, 5, stood amidst rows and rows of blueberry bushes at Cherrywood Farm, which is part of family-operated Ditzler Orchard in southern Parke County. The trio are big fans of blueberries and have some plans for the fruits they picked, weighing a total of 15 pounds.
Burris said she plans to “bag them up and freeze them, so we’ll have them through the year.” She would especially like the berries in her smoothies, she said. Cherokee wants to “just eat them,” she said with a smile.
But little Lily began eating the fruit — known to contain vitamins and antioxidants — even while picking. She clearly liked blueberries “because they’re good and delicious,” she said.
A month ago, Burris was at the farm to pick strawberries, but this time, she went for the “big and dark” blueberries, which the rain may have helped produce.
Unlike other berries, blueberries like wet weather, said orchard owner Judi Ditzler. The rain helps make the fruit plump. “Blueberries generally like rain. They do well with a good bit of rain,” she said. An inch of rain per week is beneficial. It helps keep the berries growing and the plants healthy, she added.
But the Wabash Valley has seen more than an inch of rain these past few weeks, which Ditzler said has not been good for the harvest. There has been “... a lot more rain than they need,” she said, which resulted in berries having “wet feet” or standing in water for a month. The plants also received less sunshine “so some of the varieties are not turning blue” and just gets rotten, she said. In addition, “this much rain has made the berries softer than usual,” Ditzler said.
The family orchard grows 1,000 bushes of blueberries in an acre and a quarter of land. Ditzler said the planting started in 2004 and currently grows five different kinds of blueberries: blueray, bluecrop, duke, nelson and bluejay. The last mentioned — bluejay — was the variety that was most affected by the extra rain this season, she said.
Wabash Valley soil is not ideal for blueberries because the plants fare better in acidic soil, she said, but the varieties that do well in the area are bluejay, bluecrop and blueray. “Those three grow very nicely for us. The others struggle,” she explained.
But the rain has caused concerns for the growers.
“The biggest problem we’ve had this year is actually being able to get in and pick because you don’t want to pick berries in the rain. Wet berries will not keep as well,” Ditzler said. People are also not coming to pick because it is raining, she said.
Although the growers have a full crop, “the weather has messed up our harvesting,” she said, her frustration clearly visible. The extra rain adversely affected about 25 percent of the crop and out of that, about half was probably lost, she added.
With a few days of sunshine in the forecast for the coming days, it might be a chance to catch up on some blueberry picking. Those interested can pick blueberries at the farm from 7:30 a.m. every day except Sunday. Blueberry picking is still open for another week. After that, blackberries will be available for picking.
Burris seemed to enjoy her first experience at picking blueberries. “It’s very peaceful out here. It’s nice,” she said. “And it just gives us a chance to spend time together, too.”