Hansen's Blueberry Farm
My girls and I are getting used to small town life. This time, it resulted in a delicious outing. When we first moved back to my small hometown last summer, I saw a lot of fresh fruit and vegetables. I was excited to have all of this fresh produce and support local people. However, after coming from bigger cities, I have to admit that I wasn't exactly sure how to do it or who to trust. I know. That sounds crazy, but my thought to fruit stands on the side of the road was, "how do I know if this product is safe to eat?" My trusted go to city source was the local farmer's market. The other part was some of these were unmanned...what do I pay? ...do I just leave money and take the fruit? It ended up being more questions and possibly hassle; so, I just didn't bother.
This year, as the fresh fruit and vegetables began to appear again, I made a vow that I would eat more local foods. Heck- fresh is better anyway. Through a grapevine of friends, I found out about a u-pick berry farm in the next town over. I called up my best friend and we decided to spend a morning picking blueberries. One great thing about Hansen's is that it is right off of the highway and easy to find. You do end up parking along side the road, but hey- that's country life.
As you walk up to the farm, there is a barn type building (haha- maybe large shed- it's not your picturesque red country barn) where they have their business office set up. They were really friendly and welcomed us as we walked in the door. There were signs posted to make sure that everyone followed the same berry picking rules. We were given blue gallon buckets and off we went to check out the fields.
Blueberry fields at Hansen's in Corning.
We were able to pick any aisle to start on. A lot of people gathered on the first aisle of bushes; so, we picked aisles about halfway across the field. I had friends who posted about picking berries over the weekend and I knew that this berry season started a few weeks ago; so, I was fearful that the fields would be picked over. No, this was not the case. The bushes were filled with an abundance of beautiful berries.
The girls really enjoyed picking their own blueberries. I have to admit that I worried on if there would be an enjoyment factor for them. We aren't country girls...would this seem more like work to them than an outing? Nope. We happily picked and chatted. We were amazed out how easily the blueberries came off of the branches.
My original thought was that we would just pick one bucket. However, I gave in to peer pressure and sampled a blueberry. These were the most delicious blueberries I had ever tasted. There is definitely something to be said about farm fresh, straight off of the vine produce. Not only did we end up picking two buckets that day, but we went back on another day to pick a third bucket.
The cost for one bucket of blueberries is $15. They only take cash or check. (I'm still learning on this small town necessity to always have cash on hand.) They will dump the bucket into a bag for you to take home. At home, we froze some of our blueberries and used others fresh. Each bucket equalled two gallon zip lock bags of blueberries. Check out our article on the best way to care for your fresh blueberries. For more information on Hansen's Blueberry Farm, call (530)824-2331. My understanding is that there is about one more week of prime picking in the season. After that, they said to call ahead.
