As part of the Bureau County “Communities in Bloom” program, Plow Creek Farm is giving free farm tours on Saturday. Tours leave from the Market Barn each hour from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m. We plan to give rides on a wagon behind a tractor to our market garden and up blueberry hill to the blueberries, blackberries and raspberries. You can stay and pick blueberries an hour if you like and come back with the next tour.

A huge crowd this morning has done a good job picking all the ripe blueberries. We have no more to offer today or tomorrow. We will open again Monday.

We are running low on containers for you to take the blueberries that you pick home in. If you can bring your own boxes, mixing bowls, tuperware containers, old strawberry flats, or other containers to bring your berries home, we would appreciate it greatly. We would be glad to receive any donations of old boxes, strawberry flats, or other appropriate containers for other customers to use. We would like to be able to continue providing containers without having to charge for them, but this may change in the future if necessary.

Blueberries are now in season. The first two rows of blueberries, Bluettas are quite ready and the next two rows, Patriots have a fair number. Some of the Spartans in rows 11 and 12 are also ready.

We plan to bring blueberries to Princeton Tuesday and Saturday and Spring Valley on Thursday.

Many other rows look about at the stage the first two rows looked at a week ago. We plan to open for U-pick on Monday, June 30.

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.

Tueday, June 17 is the first of our monthly special Tueday afternoon markets. This Tueday’s plans include:

Ribeye sandwiches served by the Princeton Chamber and the Princeton Young Professionals. 4:30 pm—6:30 pm

Chef Monika from Chestnut Street Inn will be preparing a dish made with locally-grown foods found right there at the market! 5:30 pm

Kids! Learn about dairy foods and milk a pretend cow. 6:00 pm—7:00 pm

FREE Blood Pressure checks provided by Perry Memorial Hospital. 3:30 pm—7:00 pm

And Plow Creek will have a hillside full of strawberries for sale, along with salad fixings and other spring produce. AND Plow Creek Bakery goodies!

Monday we picked the most berries per day yet this year — and we covered about half the field. Large quantities of good berries are now available to pick. If you do not wish to pick your own, you may order some, or come to the Princeton or Spring Valley Markets.

Saturday, June 14 is Strawberry Festival.

The plans include strawberry shortcake from Plow Creek, hot lunch from the Boy Scouts, pulled pork sandwiches by the 4-H, fresh stawberries and bakery goodies from Plow Creek, opportunities to pick your own strawberries at Plow Creek, and town-wide garage and yard sales throughout Tiskilwa.

Strawberry Shortcake sales are planned to run from 11 A.M. until 1 P.M.

Children’s activities incuding games and face painting are also planned.

We will have a good quantity of strawberries at the Princeton Farmers’ Market Saturday, June 7. U-pick will open soon!

Also in Princeton we will have herbs, radishes, Swiss chard, lettuce, spinach, and Plow Creek Bakery goods.

We’ve found our first few ripe stawberries. We might have a few pints available for the first customers for the Tuesday June 3 afternoon Princeton Farmers’ Market at 3:30. There should be at least a limited quantity for the Saturday June 7 market. Depending on how fast they ripen, we’d expect we might be open for picking the week of June 9 - 14.

We had a good start last Saturday at the Princeton Farmers’ Market. This week we will again have rhubarb, spinach, salad greens, herbs, radishes, and Plow Creek Bakery goodies. Also another chance at our most nutritious (and that’s saying a lot — blueberries are fantastic) product - stinging nettles. Use them for tea or a cooked green. Great in quiche.

Tuesday afternoon/evening we start the new schedule - Tuesdays 3:30 - 7:00.

Sorry. It will be at least another week until enough strawberries for market are ripe. We’ve seen a few close enough to being ripe to be tempting. Warm weather in the forecast should speed the ripening.

U-Pick Rhubarb in now available by appointment. Leave us a message at 814-646-4862 and we can get back with you to arrange a time. Rhubarb is $1.25/pound u-pick or $1.75/pound if we pick it.