Looking for something out of the ordinary, the finerepast gang found themselves at Circle S Farms in Grove City, Ohio. This time of year, you can go there to pick your own raspberries (at least until the first hard frost). They also have strawberries from the end of May until June 22 and pumpkins from September 28 until the end of October. Upon arrival, we were given a large picking basket and went out to the fields with the silly notion that we would completely fill it.

Circle S Farms from the pickin’ fields

We quickly learned that pickin’ raspberries is very labor intensive, especially in the hot sun. You also have to compete with bees, yellow jackets, spiders, grasshoppers, etc., and these raspberry bushes/plants pack some thorns as well. Was it worth it? I would say so.

Shot of some of the pickins which weren’t slim

Here’s a few tips from the school of hard knocks. 1 – Get low to the ground; 2 – wear one glove and hold the plant up with the gloved hand; 3 – pick with the other hand. What may look like a barren branch will generally have a ton of berries on the underside. The branches/plants that hang low do so usually because they are loaded down with berries.

The booty

This was about four pounds of raspberries. To fill the entire basket, you were probably looking at 10 pounds of berries. Four pounds of raspberries is probably way too much unless you have a specific use for them. We will end up giving a lot of them away. We picked closer to five pounds and somehow the extra pound of raspberries magically disappeared. I did try the M&M trick that I used to do as a kid – see how many I could stuff in my mouth at one time. 44 was my record. It also cured me of any need for raspberries for a bit.

[where: 9015 London-Groveport Road, Grove City, Ohio]

614-878-7980

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