Good News from The Berry Patch (updated August 8, 2017)

 Friends of The Berry Patch-

 Thanks to everyone for your posts, calls, and support over the past several weeks!  We have appreciated them greatly.

The early June hailstorm devastated this year’s strawberry, raspberry and blueberry plantings on the day before we were going to open for harvest.  On over 20 acres of fruit, we haven’t been able this summer to find enough berries to fill an ice cream pail. Without income from sales, we had to lay off virtually all of our summer help, and put off a lot of maintenance and plant care. It’s been a real challenge.

But I’m happy to tell you that this past week we closed on a sizable bank loan that will provide the working capital to reinvest in our plantings, with the goal of re-opening for business in June 2018! 

So we are back working in the fields again, but we still have a long way to go. Frankly, we could use some volunteer help. Right now, the most urgent thing is to get our raspberry fields pruned.  This involves using hand-held pruning shears to cut off dead canes so that new canes have space to grow.  We’ll be working in three hour shifts (9a-noon and 1p-4p) on the next two Saturdays, August 12 and 19, to get this done.

If you would like to volunteer for a shift, please send an email to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..  Give us your name, phone number, how many are in your group, and which shift you would like to work.  (E.g. Saturday August 12 from 9am to noon or 1pm to 4pm, or Saturday August 19 from 9am-noon or 1p-4p).  We’ll provide training, tools, and refreshments throughout the day.

In later posts, we’ll tell you about a couple other things coming up, but for now, we’ll end the same way we began:  Thank you!  We look forward to seeing you at the Patch this summer or next June!

 

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