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Scott and Amy Turner
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Scott and Amy Turner
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Membership and U-Pick Details
The membership concept.
Every year, we think how we can make your organic blueberry u-pick experience even better. Our ideal is that you have a high quality picking experience to go along with our tremendously tasty certified organic berries.
How does this sound?Again this year, in an effort to make our berries more accessible to our customers and to foster a relaxed picking atmosphere,Come when you want. Stay as long as you like. Enjoy the cool evenings. (Or the cool early mornings. Or the heat of the day if you're headed to the river afterwards!) Hear the birds sing.
Blue Dog Farm is open for u-pick only to members.
As soon as those berries are ripe, our members will be coming at their convenience to pick. You, too, can become a member because though memberships will be limited, we can comfortably serve a few more this summer.
How much does a membership cost? How can we become members? What does it include? Membership costs $35 ($30 for payment made before July 1).
You still pay for your berries by the pound each time you come to pick, and there is an honor system and self-service component to membership, but what you get is access when YOU want to come and a relaxed and peaceful picking experience. We know you love coming out when it works for you! We've created the special category of customer called "member" that grants you nearly unlimited access to our blueberry fields during the season. (Early evening picking is the BEST! Bring your picnic dinner.)
How does it work? Those best and most motivated customers know our routines (or can easily learn them). You know where the buckets are. You are willing to wipe them out and put them away when you are done. You can operate a scale and record your sale. You feel comfortable roaming in the fields until you find berries you like. You can help yourselves and will leave a check or an electronic payment. You relish the idea of stewarding this farm with us. We want members who have the skill and fortitude and sense of ownership to generally help themselves. That is a large part of what puts the sustainable into this farm.3. The membership self-service approach -- Along with a come-when-you-want schedule comes some self service. We have step by step instructions posted in the tent. So start there when you come. We will have buckets for you to use and boxes for taking your berries home, as usual, but we definitely want to encourage members to bring their own containers or re-use the boxes to take berries home. We encourage using just one bucket and putting your berries in a box in the tent marked with your name, so your berries stay safer and cooler until you are ready to check out.
Do not misconstrue us: we LOVE seeing you. As much as possible, you will find us or a farm helper in the tent. And we hope to have time to actually VISIT with you. But we are not down in the field from dawn to dark (though you could be!) And if we are not there, you will be prepared to get your berries anyway because you will have reviewed our information here and in the tent.
Other details of membership:
1. Come anytime -- You may come any day at any time there is daylight once we announce the opening for the season -- probably early-mid July.
2. Join at the farm -- You may join in early summer or you may wait until we open for picking. Memberships will be $30 until July 1 and $35 after that. We have New Member Signup forms in the tent on a clipboard.
Easiest, in any event: email us with
1. Your NameWe will respond back -- undoubtedly with more details! and you are in! Once the season starts, you will be out picking yummy organic blueberries!
2. Your Street Address
3. Your Email Address
4. Your Phone Number
5. How you would like to pay for your membership -- mailed check, PayPal or Venmo
6. Tell us you have reveiwed our policies and want to be a member
7. Any questions you have
4. Tent staffing -- Sometimes, one of us or our friends or neighbors are also in the field and tent and can help and answer questions. Other members can also often answer questions. But remember, folks, picking blueberries and paying for them is not rocket science! Your ability to do for yourself helps us maintain a farm that is as accessible to you as possible. If no one is staffing the tent, you will need to weigh, record your sale on the check out sheet, pay by one of our non-cash methods, and return your used buckets to the bin for sanitizing. You can do it!!
5. Pay by check, Paypal or Venmo We do not have a cash box in the field for making change. Please do NOT plan to pay with cash. Be prepared with a check to pay for your berries ($3.10/lb) and leave it in the box in the checkout tent – or use PayPal or Venmo.
6. Parking Park on the right side of the lane, angle in parking in front of the blueberry rows. Focus on parking where the ground is flat! There is a good place to turn around across the creek on the left side of the lane just past the port-a-potty but before the greenhouse. Please don't try to back out and turn around in the narrow lane. Also focus on slow driving! There are kids and people excited about blueberries. More parking is available towards the end of the lane past the blueberries in the area of the turnaround.
7. Dogs We like dogs. We named our farm after a dog, (good old Friday, rest in peace) and when we go picking in our fields, we like to take our current blue dog Petey. He is getting older, so he will probably bark at you. If you choose to bring your (polite) dog and to take him/her out of your vehicle, please have the dog on a short leash and keep him/her with you at all times. No elimination in the blueberry fields!
8. Kids We like kids. Our farm was a great place for raising our own boys, and we want you to bring your kids and have a great time. Sometimes kids get hot and tired and drift towards the shade of the tent. This is totally fine. Please just be aware that sometimes when unsupervised for too long, kids start kid-like behaviors that affect others negatively like attempting to snack out of customers’ boxes, draining the drinking water or using 7,984 dixie cups, throwing berries, and, well, you can imagine. Kids also have been known to start behaviors that affect others positively, like cleaning up the tent area and greeting customers and answering questions. So just stay clued in to what your kids are up to and admire or redirect as the situation suggests.
9. Friends Yes! bring your friends with you. Anyone who is interested in organic blueberries and supporting small farms is welcome with you. Maybe they will want to be a member in their own right next year. Many of our best customers come to us through our best customers. Your membership is for your household to come whenever and as many times as you want and any and all friends that you bring with you. Please let your guests know ahead of time how we accept payment (#5 above).
Other u-pick details:
There is little shade in the field -- that sun helps the berries grow. But for people, it's good to bring a hat and wear your sunscreen. If you get over hot, you are welcome to come sit in the shade in the blueberry tent, or find some shade at the field borders in our "wildlife habitat" areas. (Or exercise your membership privileges and come when it's cooler!)
We have a portable toilet available, hand washing, and drinking water.
We have buckets available for you to pick into and boxes available for you to take your berries home.
For payment, We accept checks, PayPal and Venmo only.
This is a farm. You can drive to the field, but there are places in the field where the ground is uneven, and occasionally, the blackberries or nettles intrude. Be prepared with shoes and watch your step.
This is a farm. There are insects here, including stinging ones. Occasionally, there are wasps in the bushes. Leave them alone. Feel free to show us if you find a wasp nest and we will try to remove it so it doesn't surprise someone else, but some will get missed.
Our members and their guests may certainly snack as they pick and figure out what you like in terms of variety and ripeness. We do!
Take care with buckets of picked berries and guard that they don't get tipped. If they get tipped, you don't get to enjoy all that you picked and we don't get paid for them. We advise bringing your full-ish buckets to the tent where you can put them safely in a box in the shade marked with your name.
There can be a lot of waste in u-pick for which we the farmers do not get compensated. We ask that you respect our work to bring you this organic food.
Please monitor your children in the field. There is also creek on the property near the berry fields that could be a hazard to young children who wander too far. However, families are more than welcome to dip their toes. Ask where the good spots are.
We have some tenant farmers, Mary and Nicole of Silver Seeds Farm. They are here for their third year and grow vegetables on some of our land and in the greenhouse. Details on their farm operation here: Silver Seeds Farm. If you see them, say hi! but please limit your wandering to the marked areas of Blue Dog Farm and do not enter the Silver Seeds area.
Feel free to bring a blanket for a picnic and walk up and down the farm lane. Members, make yourselves at home.
We're looking forward to hearing from you and seeing you this season!
Thanks for listening and supporting local organic family farms!Directions to the farm
Opening dates and times and picked berries
Links
Farm pictures
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