We picked a good amount of strawberries this morning to bring to Princeton and LaSalle farmers’ markets. This will very likely be the last we will bring to market this year. Self-serve u-pick will continue a few more days. Picking is amazingly good for this late in the season.

This Saturday we will have lots of blueberries, what might be the last strawberries of the season, a few black raspberries, new potatoes, sugar snap and snow peas, herbs, kohlrabi, maybe a little rhubarb, and a good variety of Plow Creek Bakery goods. We have lowered the price for blueberries: 2 pints for $11 or 6 pints for $30.

The strawberries are ripe for the picking. This should be an excellent week. After a rest from picking on Sunday, the rows are thick with ripe berries. The warm weather in the forecast should make all week a fine time to pick lots of strawberries.

Here’s the schedule for the Tiskilwa Strawberry Festival. On Friday, June 12, at 7 PM there is music by the Generics at Tiskilwa West Park. On Saturday, June 13, there are garage sales throughout town from 8 until 3. Tiskilwa Historical Society has Kids’ Activities at the museum on Main from 9 AM to 2 PM. At West Park on Saturday the 4-H is selling pork sandwiches, taco boats and more from 11 until 2, Plow Creek is selling strawberries, strawberry shortcake with ice cream, and Plow Creek Bakery goods, also from 11 - 2, and more children’s activities.

We now have enough strawberries ripe and ready for you to come pick some. These are very nice berries, but still fairly scarce. It will take several full rows to fill a flat. We are opening this evening from 4 P.M. until 8 P.M.

Saturday is our first Farmers’ Market. We will be in Princeton with salad greens, radishes, mint, rhubarb, popcorn, stinging nettle, and Plow Creek Bakery goods. We might have a few strawberries; if so we will limit them to one pint per customer. We hope for larger quantities in a week or so. Market opens at 8:30 A.M. We probably won’t stay until official closing time of 2:00 P.M. so come early.

We saw our first few ripe strawberries today. Most are not close to ripe, so we probably won’t be open for picking until the second week of June. I’ll announce it here if we end up opening sooner. We might have enough berries to take a few to farmers’ markets the first week of June.

Yesterday I saw my first strawberries and blueberries of the year. They are small and green, but growing. I’d estimate our first strawberries for sale at either the June 2 or June 6 Princeton Farmers’ Market, with the first blueberries available about two weeks later.

The strawberry plants have started to bloom. We expect to see the first ripe berries in about a month, at the end of May. It will be another week or so after that until we have good quantities, but we expect to have enough by Tiskilwa Strawberry Festival on June 13.

We goofed! We ordered more strawberry plants than we had room to plant this year. We have Earliglow, NorthEaster, and Jewel plants available. So they are for sale here for only 15 cents a plant or $3.00 a bundle of 25, to be picked up at the farm. Just fill out the Order Request Form or leave a message at 815-646-4862 and we will get back with you to make arrangements.

Yesterday we started removing the straw mulch from the strawberry plants, even though there was 2 inches of fresh snow. Some look almost dead, but we know from experience that they will soon revive with sun and warmth. Some were already green and vigorous looking, ready to grow. Of course, this gets us thinking about the ripe strawberries, which we expect in early June.

It’s a good time to come pick strawberries.

This may seem late, but strawberries are still at their peak. They are thick on many rows. The average size has declined, but there are still some very big ones to be found. I have been picking about 2 flats per hour, and have picked over 5 flats in some rows. Some have spoiled because they were not picked in time, but the large majority are in excellent condition with more berries ripening each day.

We also plan to have a goodly quantity of berries at Princeton Farmers’ Market Saturday.