A Visit to Berry Heaven
Meg visited Adam's Berry Farm recently, and has this to report:
I didn’t grow up in a farming family. My parents grew a few gnarled tomatoes each year and that was the extent of my agricultural experience as a kid. And yet, each July, we’d go out to the U-Pick blueberry farm for a few flats of berries.
Blueberries ripening in the sun
It’s a remarkable thing if you think about it – my family, like many others, would never have gone to a carrot farm to pull up a few bunches of carrots or to a poultry farm to gather our own eggs. Yet berries are accessible in a way that most other agricultural products are not – kind of the gateway to our local farmers and food producers. And everyone likes berries – including little kids who refuse to eat vegetables.
That accessibility is one of the many things that makes Adam’s Berry Farm a really special part of Burlington’s Intervale. Run by farmer Adam Hausmann, Adam’s Berry Farm grows strawberries, blueberries, and raspberries for City Market and for families wanting to hang out in a berry patch for a few hours, picking berries into their own quarts (and stomachs!). Just a mile from downtown Burlington, Adam’s is 10 acres of berry heaven. And, amazingly, all the fruit that Adam grows on these acres he manages to sell within 10 miles of the farm, which Adam says is a real testament to the support in our community for local growers.
Adam got his start in berries eight years ago. He says he was looking for a type of farming experience that would remain challenging and engaging after many years. He hasn’t been disappointed on that front. Recently, a flock of cedar waxwing birds that Adam describes as “biblical” came in, found his ripe strawberries, and ate up 1/3 of his crop. Adam tried everything, but the birds were fearless. They sat on top of his scare tape ribbons and came back even after Adam shot up bottle rockets to scare them off. Finally, he went and bought every square foot of bird netting for sale in the area – enough to cover 2/3 of his field!
Global warming has also already been a challenge as Adam notices Junes getting wetter and wetter - bad news for sensitive strawberries and raspberries that “don’t like to get their feet wet.” The changing climate has also shifted the fruit season: while strawberry harvest used to continue into the first week of July, Adam says the season has started and ended earlier in recent years, wrapping up strawberry harvest by the end of June. To confront these challenges, Adam uses large un-heated hoop houses to control moisture, pests, and extend the season. Here, too, he faces barriers – the federal government is concerned about the construction of these sorts of structures in the flood zones of the Intervale.
Adam’s luscious berries can be purchased at City Market and he is now open for Pick Your Own. For more information on Pick Your Own, call 578-9093 or check out his Facebook page. I, for one, am looking forward to a sunny day in blueberry heaven, filling quart baskets - and maybe even taking a few for my stomach.
Adam's Berry Farm entrance on Intervale Road
Instant Berry Ice Cream
This recipe comes to us courtesy of Co-op member Devon Karn, who said this was her family’s favorite way to eat blueberries when she was growing up.
Frozen blueberries
Fresh cream
Remove blueberries from freezer and pour into bowl.
Drizzle cream over top.
Stir, and watch the cream freeze to the berries. Instant ice cream!