Let’s celebrate berries in all their colorful delicious beauty.

To celebrate the start of berry season, we invite you to a weekend of very berry fun. We are offering a palette of berry themed workshops and classes as well as free activities and learning opportunities with topics ranging from growing your own fruit and plant care to turning your harvest into tasty treats. You’ll also have a chance to weave your own harvest basket. To round out the weekend fun, we will have delicious berry-packed lunch, snack and drink options available for purchase.

VERY BERRY WEEKEND SCHEDULE

Saturday June 8

10:00 am - 5:00 pm BASKET WEAVING workshop: BLACK ASH BERRY BASKET with penny hewitt

Here is a unique chance to make your own basket and in the process learn one of the oldest crafts in human history. For thousands of years, baskets have served as indispensable objects in every culture. Let's carry on this tradition and take home a beautiful, durable and useful berry basket, crafted from local and responsibly harvested, hand-pounded black ash logs. This is a great introduction to the extraordinary qualities of the black ash tree. In this class, participants will weave a square to round basket, approximately 6”x 6” with optional leather strap. Included is a discussion on how the material is harvested and processed.

Cost: $165. Limited to 12 participants. Sign up here.

12:30 PM - 1:30 PM BERRY GROWING Drop-In

Drop in for this free berry growing session. You may learn how and when to plant strawberries, which blueberry varieties might suit you best, or how to prune raspberries. Bring your berry curiosity. No sign-up required.

Sunday June 9

10:00 AM - 11:30 AM Growing berries in Vermont with Jacob Holzberg-Pill

From the common to the lesser known fruit, this class will cover all the bases to get your backyard berry patch going. Vermont’s climate brings its unique challenges and opportunities for berry production. Participants will learn which varieties to choose depending on their site and how to care for them. This includes propagation to multiply your plants, and pruning to keep them healthy.

Cost: $25. Sign up here.

12:30 PM - 1:30 PM BERRY GROWING Drop In

4:00 PM - 6:00 PM HANDS-ON, honey-Based jams with v smiley

What better way to celebrate berries than turning them into jam with local honey and fruit. In this class with V Smiley from V Smiley Preserves, you will learn how to make delicious berry jams with local ingredients. The class covers selecting, preparing and preserving fruit with honey and without added pectin. V Smiley will teach the fundamentals of flavor construction and the stages of jam cooking, using honey instead of sugar. Through tasting a wide selection of preserves and making variations on two berry jams, you’ll open up your jam making to the spice cupboard and herb garden. This is a hands-on workshop and you’ll head home with multiple jars of berry jam.

Cost: $120. Limited to 12 participants. Sign up here.

We look forward to seeing you! Our greenhouses will be open regular hours, 8:00 AM to 6:00 PM.

Growing blueberries in your own back yard can be very rewarding. Picking the plump ripe berries make a great fresh snack for young and old!

Here are a few things to pay attention to when planning your new blueberry patch:

Cross-pollination: Like many other backyard fruits, you will need to plant at least two varieties to get good cross-pollination and fruit set. Following is a list of varieties that we carry or have carried in the past. Personally, my favorites are ‘Northland’ for their exceptional flavor reminiscent of wild blueberries and ‘Bluecrop’ for their large clusters that make for easy picking.

Your soil pH: Select a sunny site in your garden and then get your soil tested! Blueberries will only thrive in acidic soil and most garden soils will need to be amended with a soil acidifier. This is the same product you would use for hydrangeas.
Spacing: Give your blueberry bushes enough elbow room. Depending on the varieties chosen this will be 4-6 feet of space between the plants. Check the tag on the plants you purchase to know their mature size and recommended spacing.
Take your time: For the best success and least maintenance, plan ahead and prepare your planting spot in Fall, then plant in Spring as soon as the soil warms up enough to work it. Blueberry bushes can be planted any time of year but will require good watering (mulching helps!) and weeding especially in the first few seasons. As tempting as it is to let your berry bushes fruit as soon as possible, it is recommended to remove all flowers in the first year. This way your plants can put all their energy into growing a healthy root system. That will in turn give them more energy to bear more fruit the next season. Patience pays off.

For more growing and maintenance tips, please refer to this handy growing guide or come by in our greenhouses and ask one of our plant experts!

This post was written by Kat Consler.

Very Berry Weekend