July’s record rain may have soured your vacation plans, but all that water is making a sweet, juicy blueberry crop.
Some fruits, like cherries, can be damaged if the rain hits right as they’re ripening, said Diane Souther, who owns Apple Hill Farm in Concord with her husband Chuck. “Blueberries don’t. They just keep on stretching and getting fatter and juicier.”
One reason for their resilient berries, she said, is the layout of their farm, where blueberry bushes are located halfway up a hill. That placement protects them from water pooling up, and all that passing water can actually help the crop. The heaviest rains can knock ripe berries from the bush, but the farm generally picks its bushes clean of ripe berries before the worst of the weather arrives.
Frankie Brandt, farm manager at Fairhaven Farm in Hopkinton, says his high bush berries ripened later this year, pushing the start of picking season back by a week or two. In most years, blueberries are ripe for the picking by early June and the season can last well into August.
Olivia Saunders, a fruit and vegetable production field specialist for the UNH Coop, agrees that the rain is fattening up berries across the state, but there’s a danger, too. In some scenarios, leaf wetness can lead to fungal diseases. That’s why, Saunders said, sunny days are important since they reduce the amount of moisture on the leaves.