DORR, Mich. — Rows upon rows of blueberry bushes fill the fields of Beard's Produce in Allegan County, and while they had a busy start to their season, they have noticed visitors recently taper off at not only their farm, but other local farms as well.
"We've been having a great crop of things this year," said manager and operator Ronda Gilbert, as the farm has been in her family since the 1960s. "It's just that they were extra early this year, and I'm just feeling that people aren't expecting them during the time frame that they're ready this year."
Gilbert says this time of year is typically prime picking season.
They opened for u-pick this year on July 3, close to ten days before they normally open. Gilbert says fruit farms across the area are ten days to two weeks early with their produce, attributing it to this year's warm spring.
"The other thing is, lots of times the berries will ripen at different intervals based on when they blossom. This year, it just seems like they there was a lot more overlapping, so that you would have a lot more ripe berries," said Gilbert. "We had our later berries were ripe almost the same time as our early berries were ripe."
Despite the early start, Gilbert says their farm still has many blueberries ready to be picked, as do other local farms.
"We've been getting a lot of phone calls asking, 'Do you still have berries? Do you still have berries?' And we still have beautiful berry picking here," said Gilbert.
For small, local fruit farms, many rely largely on u-pick visitors to stay afloat.
"This is our livelihood. We take pride in what we have, and we cater to the families out here, and if it wasn't for them, we wouldn't be able to continue on," said Gilbert. "We want to keep it going. It's been going here since the 1960s, so we want to keep the keep the farm going."
Gilbert says picking season in the area typically goes until mid to late August, and says not to hesitate to call and make sure there are ample berries.