Berries

REPORT JUNE 24/25 It’s hot! Best time picking is 8 am – 11, then after 6 pm. Call if you’d like evening time. Berries are ripening nicely with this heat. Next picking day Thursday June 26 Mix and Match blackberries and blueberries. Cilantro and Basil, Cucumbers, too.Tomatoes still a couple weeks away.

CROP REPORT JUNE 23 Today, so hot, was a good ripening day so July 24 will have plenty of berries to come out for. The bushes are loaded. Today, spent time snipping off the dead branches where Cicadas nibbled. We had extensive damage. Cucumbers coming on strong.

CROP REPORT JUNE 21 Days End: 10 people picked today..not serious pickers but all just wanted that first ripe blueberry and they did pick clean. Raspberries about gone. Just starting blackberries. Most popular today was lush cilantro and basil. $1/handful. Cucumbers, Market More and Japanese long. Much eying of those green tomatoes! Signs on the road got put out as well as social media. Next picking day Tuesday June 24.

CROP REPORT JUNE 21: Blueberries are starting today! I will let a limited number of people in the patch. Call for an appointment now until July 1 when we open to the public. $15/gal mix and match Raspberries have dwindled, blackberries are starting. Cilantro, Basil and cucumber for sale in green house. 1 year blueberry plants for sale in pots $12.

Celebrating 50 years of U-Pick!

Small crop of Red Raspberries are ready in June. Call for an appointment in June 828-628-1758. Blueberry season will start Tuesday, July 1, 8:30 am-noon, open to the public. Keep checking here for a crop report. We’ll be open each morning Tuesday-Saturday.

Sunday by appointment. Closed Monday.

Hurricane Helene did a number on our irrigation system and putting ruts in the access road to the field, but it is repaired now and the rain has helped produce a bumper crop of Blueberries this year (2025). The cicadas came along in May and June and chewed the tips of young branches so you’ll see lots of brown tips but still plenty of berries.

Facilities & Rules

• Bring a container to put your berries in to take home. We pick in cut-out gallon milk jugs tied around the waist. A gallon is considered up to the top, but if you move it and the berries spill out, then you have overfilled and owe a couple bucks more. OR if you ate plenty in the field or your kids did…then throw in a couple more bucks.
• If you have any rinsed out milk/water/tea jugs, we can always use more to freshen up our stock.
• The season begins the last week of June and goes through the last day of July and sometimes into August. It is always best to check the picking schedule page that keeps updated.
• Prices are $15/gallon (which is about 5 pounds). Cash, Venmo, Paypal or check.
• Can you walk on uneven ground? We have rolling to level terrain that is kept mowed. The grass is dewy in the morning so wear waterproof shoes.
• Bring your own water as we do not have any source for drinking water here.
• We do have a Port-O-Potty at the entrance parking lot and a green painted, out-house at the bottom of the patch.
• Two picnic tables are in the shade under the blueberry house roof that you can use.
• We do not spray any pesticides on our plants or berries because we value the native pollinator population and our own honey bees that help make our crop. Besides, we believe you should be able to trust fruit right off the bush as you do the taste test to determine which ones to pick!
• Well-behaved children only. Please consider the peace of the other pickers. You must keep your children with you as there are ponds and creeks and poison ivy they could wander into. Our liability insurance is for the patch area only.
• NO DOGS in the patch.
• We keep your safety in mind but, as always, be aware of your surroundings.

WARNING: Under North Carolina law, there is no liability for an injury to or death of a participant in an agritourism activity conducted at this agritourism location if such injury or death results from the inherent risks of the agritourism activity. Inherent risks of agritourism activities include, among others, risks of injury inherent to land, equipment, and animals, as well as the potential for you to act in a negligent manner that may contribute to your injury or death. You are assuming the risk of participating in this agritourism activity.

History

This patch was created out of an old corn field in 1967 as a hobby farm for the newly-retired father and mother Peterson to have something to do! After all, the Peterson grandfather raised strawberries and trees in the early 1900s in Minnesota, thus instilling the love of the land.

By 1974, every row in the 4 acre patch was planted and thriving as a U-pick Blueberry patch open to the public by appointment. This patch provided and provides today, the good feeling of purposeful living.

Perspective from Janet, the daughter, “My husband and I took it over in 1996, relieving my 88-year-old father, and, blindly, not realizing all the work involved! He continued to do much of the mowing up ’til the age of 91. I have spent time since restoring the patch to its former glory and meeting the challenge of weeds, frosts, drought and sometimes, too much rain.”

The patch continues to serve over 70 families for their U-Pick needs and has seen 3 generations of pickers experience where food comes from. There is nothing like the sweet smell of blueberry blossoms in the spring enlivening the bare shrubs drawing the honey bees and native pollinators to the flowers for a bountiful blue crop in late June, July and August.

Yes, we still have some bushes that are over 50 years old! But most have been taken out. We transitioned from Northern Highbush to the Rabbit Eye variety in 2005. The berries are not as fragile, flavor is good, the bushes are hardier and the season is longer. They grow in drought and rain conditions easier than the temperamental Northern Highbush. On the con side, pruning is way more difficult and they grow so tall. So the jury is still out on whether we like them better or not.

In 2016 we put in a “JR” High Tunnel. Tomatoes, lettuce, basil, cucumbers and cilantro are some of the crops you’ll get to pick.

Plus our own Honey and Jam for sale from the farm.

In 2023-25 we put in 300 new Northern Highbush on the west end. We hope they succeed. You’ll see them marked with flags. Keeping them weeded and watered is the biggest challenge during the first 4 years.

Directions

GPS 137 Bob Barnwell Rd, Fletcher. But know that is Janet’s house address so don’t turn in. Follow signs to the field from there.

Follow your directions of choice below. When you arrive, park right inside the gate or along side the road out of the way of traffic. Do NOT park in the curve as cars come around too fast and spin out on the gravel.

NOTE: Do not go to a house or up a mountain. The patch is in the valley along the road.

Directions from Asheville; I-40.

• Take NC exit 53 A east
• Go on highway 74 A East for 5.2 miles towards Fairview.
• R on Emma’s Grove Road
• Go 1.4 mi.
• R on Bob Barnwell Road
• Go 1 mile
• (You will go past the Cloud 9 mailbox #137)
• to patch on left/blue gate, blue building with roofed market area

Directions from Skyland/Arden to Cloud 9

• Find the Ingles/Whole Foods intersection; Turn onto Mills Gap Rd.
• Cross over the RR tracks, go straight through light which continues Mills Gap Rd (Crossing Hwy 25A/Sweeten Creek Rd.) Go 1 mile to Concord Rd. Turn L and follow Y to where Concord veers to right, you stay straight which is Emma’s Grove Rd. Go 2 miles and pass the Emmas’s Grove Baptist church. Turn Left sharply on Bob Barnwell Rd. Go 3/4 mi. on Bob Barnwell Rd. The pavement turns to gravel at my property line. Your GPS will tell you that you are there but go another half mile
• (You will go past the Cloud 9 mailbox #137) to blue gate on left. Park in lot or along the road. Instructions will be on the table. I will be somewhere nearby if you call me at 828-628-1758.

Directions from Fletcher to Cloud 9

• Turn onto Cane Creek Rd with a CVS pharmacy on the corner. Go 2.3 mi. to the 2nd light. Go diagonally across Mills Gap Rd. to a continuance of Cane Creek Rd. (sign will point to Cane Creek Middle School).
• Go another 2.7 mi. Turn L on Concord Road (it comes up fast).
• Go 2/10 mi. Turn R on Gravely Branch Rd. Go to end. Turn R on Emmas Grove Rd. (no sign) Go 1 mile and turn a sharp L on Bob Barnwell Rd (after the church).
• You will go past the Cloud 9 mailbox #137 to blue gate on left.