Saturday, August 6, 2016

Local Saturday - Real Blueberries and Fake Birds

We've had an excellent blueberry season here in upstate New York.

We went picking for the third time today.  I've rarely shown you the countryside around Binghamton, New York so wanted to share these photos with you.  This is an overview of the U Pick farm.

And these are the berries.

I decided to shoot a short video with my new phone.  To me, it came out a little blurry, but it gives you a view of being in the countryside.  One thing, though - those birds you hear are not real. It is part of a system the grower uses to discourage birds from eating his berries.

This year, it isn't working too well.  It may be because of the drought situation we are in. He's lost part of the blueberry crop, and most of his sweet corn.

But, I still find it peaceful to listen to.  I hope you find it so, too.

Blueberries are so easy to pick, store, and cook or bake with.

I just couldn't resist blogging about them one last time.

23 comments:

  1. Fake birds! No kidding? Wow!
    Well, birdies will eat up blueberries fast, so I totally get it!

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    1. He's been using this system for several years. Maybe the birds finally are learning to ignore it? I hope he can work this issue out.

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  2. I wanted to go for blueberry picking for long time. Nice video. Thanks for sharing Alana

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  3. Looks like quite the spot to go picking.

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  4. Lovely post, Alana. Happy Friendship Day !!!

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    1. I will wish you Happy Friendship Day, too. I had no idea of this holiday until reading various posts on Indian blogs. I guess it was today, which means your tomorrow. Sorry I didn't realize what was happening!

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  5. They were fake? THe real birds are intelligent. They will overcome this in a few months. We had faced a similar situation at my granny's.

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    1. Ajay, those birds really are intelligent! They do love those blueberries too, especially as we are in a drought right now.

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  6. Those are some lovely blueberries. I never heard of the fake bird system. It's sad to lose those lovely berries. You sure must have had a nice time picking them. :)

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    1. Blueberries enrich your life twice - in the picking, and then in the eating.

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  7. We have an over-supply of cherries this year and because farmers agree not to glut the market and keep prices up, many of them just get dumped. I wonder if I could find a sound track of coyotes howling. Maybe that would keep the deer away.

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    1. What a shame. Such a thing leaves me speechless when I hear it, although I can also understand farmers needing a living and being able to get at least a certain minimum price. But there has to be another way to get that price.

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  8. Lovely pictures, Alana! Looks like a beautiful piece of property

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  9. Such a beautiful video and wanna spend the day there. Wanna pick the blueberries:)

    https://vishalbheeroo.wordpress.com/2016/08/07/friends-forever/

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  10. The mockingbirds got just about all the blueberries from my two little bushes this year. Maybe I need some fake birds!

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    1. Not sure how well it will work, but there must be a way!

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  11. What an enterprising farmer! Love that!

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    1. Yes - we've gone to this one U Pick for years - he is such a friendly man.

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  12. Beautiful pics and video Alana!Wishing you a Happy Friendship Day!

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  13. Yummy blueberries! I add them to oatmeal, smoothies, yogurt, coffee cake...

    But fake birds to scare off real birds? Wow, that's a first!

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