MORE BLUEBERRIES, AND FALL IS ON THE HORIZON

LARGEST BLUEBERRY GROWER IN WISCONSIN

A GREAT DAY FOR BLUEBERRY PICKING...

...YOU DON'T HAVE TO BEND OVER WHEN PICKING FROM HIGH-BUSH BLUEBERRY PLANTS

I LOVE THE BLUEBERRY BARN

SALES WERE BRISK

GOLDENRODS IN BLOOM MARK THE BEGINNING OF THE END OF SUMMER

Sunday, 8:00 AM.  67 degrees F at the ferry dock, 63 on the back porch.  Wind westerly, very light with a few stronger gusts. The sky is a combination of partly cloudy, partly overcast and haze.  The humidity is 84% and the barometer is beginning to trend down, now at 30.07".  We may get some much needed rain tonight, but today promises to be a repeat of the fine summer weather of yesterday.
   Saturday afternoon we went to Highland Valley Farm on Valley Road in the orchard country...Wisconsin's largest blueberry grower.  Rick and Janet Dale started the farm in the 1970's, keeping bees and selling honey.  They soon took up blueberries and the berry farm grew and grew, until today it is a large, established family business, with their grown children now co-owners.  Blueberries are the main crop, marketed under the trademark of "Bayfield Blues," but they also grow raspberries and currants, keep bees and sell honey, as well as maple syrup produced from their own maple trees.
   Rick Dale has become a regular volunteer for for the United States Agency for International Development, and is currently advising Romanian farmers on how to grow and sell blueberries and other berry crops for the European market, a challenging task for a country and culture still emerging from generations of war, fascism and communism.  There could be no better mentor, as Rick is a practical, free-market entrepreneur.
   Pick-your-own is a large part of the Highland Valley Farm business, but they also sell picked berries and supply local and more distant stores.  We bought blueberries, raspberries and currants, and ordered twenty pounds of frozen berries for our winter supply.  We also bought honey and maple syrup.  We celebrated the day by making blueberry pancakes, topped with maple syrup, for dinner.
   Canada goldenrods, Solidago canadensis, in the sun-flower family, the Compositae, are coming into bloom, marking the "beginning of the end" of summer.  Its hard to believe that fall is already on the horizon.