Tips for Pickers

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Strap a picking bucket around your waist.  This frees up both hands for picking.  Our picking buckets hold about 6 lbs of berries. You can take extra (and larger) buckets if you think you will pick more - or you can take your own containers into the field with you (but we will need to weigh your empty containers before they go into the field).  When picking, cup your hands together, knock the ripe fruit off with your thumbs into your hands and then drop it into the picking bucket.  You can also gently bend high branches down to the bucket with one hand and pick the ripe fruit directly into your picking bucket with your free hand. Do not pick the pink and green berries.  DO  NOT strip the branches.  You think this will be faster, but it is not. It damages the fruit and the bush, and you end up with a mess of twigs, leaves, green berries (which would have ripened later) and bruised-up blueberries in your bucket.  

PICK LIKE A PRO - You will be MUCH more productive if you stand in one place and pick a bush clean before moving on to another bush - roaming around and just picking "the big ones" wastes so much time and takes forever to accumulate just a pound or two.

     Once the picking bucket at your waist is full, pour the contents into  larger containers - if you brought some - and begin refilling the picking bucket.  When you are satisfied with the amount you have picked, head back to the check-out area with your berries to have them weighed.