January Blackberry Picking

Yesterday we went to a nearby farm to pick some blackberries! It was a warm sunny day with a hot sun and blue skies, perfect to get out of the house for a bit.  Since it was a rare free Sunday (that is, no market that morning), we wanted to go out and do something, but we didn't really feel up to a bushwalk or want to drive very far.  A 'u-pick' berry farm outside of Arding seemed like a nice compromise: not a lot of hassle to get there and back, plus we'd get to bring home the fruits of our labours.

I had never been to Arding before (and to be fair, I still haven't.) Arding is a tiny rural community west of the New England Highway between Armidale and Uralla.  The berry farm is on the far side of the crossroads of the "town" and to get there we drove south almost all the way to Uralla on the highway before turning westward onto a winding road and then heading north.

The only straight stretch of the road as it meets the New England Hwy

It's a pleasant drive, typical of the fields and forests of this part of New England. Not all of the roads out to these rural communities are sealed, but this particular one is. Also typical of this area, the road is quite narrow and winding. The posted speed limit is 100km/h but it's hard to imagine that with the 50km/h turns.

Berry Good: probably the world's number one
berry-related business/branding name.

We couldn't help but remember all our u-pick in Michigan
which were always crowded and swamped with people.
To contrast, we saw about ten other people here.

It has actually been quite cool since just before Christmas and hasn't felt much like summer, but this week will be warm again. Starting yesterday and today we're back to 28C (82F) and by Thursday the forecast rises to 34C (93F). It'll be hot!  The blackberries were just starting to ripen and the pickings were pretty slim, but we figured we could drop in again later in the week when all those berries are ripe.

For ever five unripe berries there was one ready to go.

Despite the 'slim pickins' we got ourselves quite a treat

Just over a kilo of berries (more than two pounds)

The farm is not small by any means, but not huge, either--but there was plenty of room for everyone there to pick plenty of ripe berries. There weren't more than ten people under the nets at any one time: there were two families leaving when we arrived, and another group came while we were there. It was pretty hot under the sun: the bird netting didn't provide any shade, of course! We wore our hats and long-sleeves, but we picked our tubs full pretty quickly anyway and wouldn't have had to worry about sunburn.

Bird protection

It was hard not to think about Michigan and remember the u-pick strawberries, raspberries, and blueberries we enjoyed while we lived in Ann Arbor. It's very different here of course, with so few people: in Michigan you absolutely had to be there first or nothing would be left (for strawberries) or it would be crowded and noisy with all the people and families (everything else.) Here, it's a much more laid-back experience.

But: just so we don't forget we're in Australia, we saw a triple-decker sheep trailer on our way back into Armidale. (That's something we never saw in Michigan.)

The three levels of sheep: baa - ram - ewe?

And: to finish our perfect berry adventure, Reid made a blackberry crumble!  It's been a long time since we've had blackberries, and even longer since we've had a crumble. Next weekend is likely to be very busy with the market prep (or maybe not - it's cold weather forecast which means no drinks which means much less prep to do) but if we get some more berries maybe we'll treat ourselves to a blackberry cobbler or coffeecake. Yum!

 Before (before baking)

After (before eating)