Pat’s Wildways: U-Pick farms

It’s blueberry picking season! Recently, I got a hankering for picking my own blueberries and hopefully other produce from a U-pick farm near us. It took a bit of Googling but I found a few options about a half hour away from Amelia Island, in the Kingsland, Georgia area and conscripted my friend Susan Gallion to go along with me. Why not make a day of it! Great!

We left the island around 9 a.m. and got to the first farm, Vacuna Farms, before the day heated up. Perfect. At Vacuna Farms we were greeted by the farm owner, Ben Casey, who also serves as a Camden County Commissioner when not tending his fields. Before long we had picked a pound of blueberries, and, had we been eager, we could easily have picked a few pounds more. At $4 a pound, these were a bargain. Blackberries were also available for picking in a distant row of vines but we didn’t venture there. Vacuna Farm also nurtures an orchard of mayhaw trees, which are native to the southern United States and cultivated for their red, cherry-sized, tart fruit, the main ingredient of much-prized mayhaw jelly. If we wanted, we could have picked these too — but making jelly is beyond me, and the tart fruit needs lots of sugar to be edible.

But the fruit was not the only thing gained by a visit to this farm — it was more about the ambience and farm scenery than the proceeds, at least for Susan and me. We happily wandered around the grounds, admiring native wildflowers, a pet pig, a band of geese floating in the large pond, and a troupe of ducks parading through the blueberry rows, eating berries that careless pickers had dropped.

From here we moved just up the road a few miles to Merck Farms, where Bob Merck had opened the gate for us on a non-picking day. Bob’s main forte is strawberries; he and his son manage two acres of strawberry plants and are in the process of clearing 10 more acres for future expansion. Raising strawberries is fraught with problems, or so Bob told us. His operation is new, and two years ago he lost most of his crop to a fungal disease and this year some of his strawberries have been affected by yet another pest — chilli thrips. But despite these setbacks, Bob and his son carry on. And, they have diversified into raising vegetables like squash, corn, beans and other crops that are also available for U-pick customers. There is another even closer U-pick farm to us, The Blueberry Ranch on U.S. Highway 17 in Yulee that is open on Saturdays, but this wasn’t Saturday, so we were out of luck to visit it on this field trip.

But now it was lunch time for Susan and me, and I can’t be in the Kingsland area around meal time without stopping at Steffens restaurant on Highway 17. We were lucky to be able to claim a booth in this always-busy restaurant. Sometimes, there is a long wait just to get in the door. Country-fried steak, fried catfish, fried green tomatoes and okra, oh boy! If you, like me, are a fan of traditional Southern food, friendly people, and ample portions, this place is for you. I had also hoped to score some blue crabs, live, then steamed for me to pick up at M&A’s Seafood Market in Kingsland but, sadly, this day they were out of live crabs. Although I can usually buy live blue crabs at Lofton Creek Seafood near Fernandina, they do not cook and clean them for you and that’s a bit of work. But M&A’s Seafood cooks and cleans them on order, a real bonus. Oh well, better luck next time.

It’s a lot of good clean fun to visit a U-pick farm and a great place to bring your kids. But you'd better hurry since most crops are finished before our hot summer season. And picking is best early in the day before the weather heats up. These U-pick farms carefully monitor the condition of their crops, taking into account the number of people picking them, and often decide only the day before whether or not to open their gates the next day. The best way to find out their schedule is to follow them on Facebook where both Vacuna Farms and Merck Farms regularly post their planned opening days. So, if you decide to go, check with them first before heading there. Dress for bugs and heat, just to be sure, and have fun!

Pat Foster-Turley, Ph.D., is a zoologist on Amelia Island. She welcomes your nature questions and observations. Patandbucko@yahoo.com