Blueberries on the Shawangunk Ridge
Tis the season for Blueberries.
July is blueberry harvest season in New York State and the Shawangunk Ridge has a rich history in blueberry growing.
Originally Native Americans, and then by the early 1700s, Euro-Americans were making day trips to the mountain to harvest huckleberries for their families.
There are differences between huckleberries and blueberries -- both sometimes called bilberries or whortleberries. The easiest difference to discern is the number of seeds inside the berry, huckleberries have more. In our area the two types of berry bushes grow intermingled.
By 1886, berry picking as an industry was well established on the ridge. In 1862 huckleberry buyers were paying eight cents per quart and by 1871 the pickers were receiving fifteen cents.
Around the turn of 19th century the berry pickers began to establish seasonal camps in what is now the Sam’s Point Preserve and nearby lands. Their settlements were, for the most part, clustered along the road west of Lake Maratanza and along Smiley Road, a road providing a direct route from Ellenville to hotels at Lake Minnewaska.
Pickers reported that they could earn $4 to $5 dollars a day working steadily. Many looked forward to the summer and coming to the Shawangunks to pick berries.
“From a baby I was carried into the mountains. It was just a thing, that every year you looked forward to get up there, you couldn’t wait...It’s like, it’s in your soul, you can’t get out of it. If you was livin’ it: if you could go there and live it like I lived it...and my brothers... It was like some kind of power, pulling...I just loved it. It was just like holding you there,” Fred Conklin, berry picker, said quoted from The Huckleberry Pickers, A Raucous History of the Shawangunk Mountains by Marc B. Fried.
The berry pickers used fire to help prune the berry bushes; burning the ends of the branches off encouraged new growth. There are many stories about the methods they used to start the fires at the end of the picking season. One was positioning a lit cigar beneath an open matchbook. Another method was to tar and feathering a possum and then set it lose, and one more was attaching a lit candle to a turtle’s back and sending the unfortunate animal into the underbrush.
At the end of the Second World War the wild berry picking industry dried up when the cultivation of berry trees took over. The remains of at least seven huckleberry camps can still be seen today at Sam’s Point.
Wild blueberries are still in season in the last week of July and first week of August and can be picked at Sam’s Point. “We ask that you limit it to about a pie’s worth,” Heidi Wagner, Preserve Manager, said.
Wild berries can also be found on Minnewaska State Park land. Easiest access would be down Blueberry Run, a single track path off Lower Awosting Carriage Road, and on the Peter’s Kill Trail on the Mohonk Preserve. Maps are available at the kiosks when you enter all of the parks.
The reports of bear sightings, bears also love blueberries, is about average this year, according to Wagner.
Since the ‘50s local blueberry cultivation has replaced the wild blueberry industry.
Kelder and Saunderskill Farms both grow high-bush blueberries; the more easily cultivated variety of the plant. Kelders has about three acres of blueberries under cultivation and Saunderskill has about two.
Blueberry bushes prefer a soil with a high acidity, according to Chris Kelder, owner of Kelder Farms. That’s why they naturally grow well on the ridge, the pitch pine contributes acidity to the soil.
On farms farmers add sulfur to bring the pH level of the soil down into the 4 range, 7 is neutral.
The pick-your-own fields on the farm are doing a good business this season.
“It’s quite busy on a nice day,” Kelder said. “And going from strawberries to blueberries- it’s easier picking, with strawberries you have to bend over, blueberries you can stand up”.
Blueberries are a slow crop. It takes a couple to three years for them to come in Kelder explained.
They take a lot of care, pruning an eighth of the bush back every winter. Kelder’s farm works with them all year round.
Dan Schoonmaker, of Saunderskill Farm, says that blueberries are a unique crop. They have a much longer season than other local berries. Sometime as long as six weeks. In July they are really the only local berry available.
You can get berries without picking them yourself. There are berries available by the pint in the stores at both farms’ markets.
If you just want to enjoy the fruits without the labor, there are home baked goods at both markets as well.
“We have a baker here who breaks pies and breads with the berries, which we sell here,” Kelder said.
At Saunderskill Farm Market the recipes for their baked goods come from Cathy Schoonmaker, who grew up in a family where there were fresh baked cookies every day. The four bakers at Saunderskill make blueberry muffins and pies.
Both farmers agree that the blueberries keep better than strawberries or raspberries but the season is coming to a close so get some while this unique local delight is still available.
July is blueberry harvest season in New York State and the Shawangunk Ridge has a rich history in blueberry growing.
Originally Native Americans, and then by the early 1700s, Euro-Americans were making day trips to the mountain to harvest huckleberries for their families.
There are differences between huckleberries and blueberries -- both sometimes called bilberries or whortleberries. The easiest difference to discern is the number of seeds inside the berry, huckleberries have more. In our area the two types of berry bushes grow intermingled.
By 1886, berry picking as an industry was well established on the ridge. In 1862 huckleberry buyers were paying eight cents per quart and by 1871 the pickers were receiving fifteen cents.
Around the turn of 19th century the berry pickers began to establish seasonal camps in what is now the Sam’s Point Preserve and nearby lands. Their settlements were, for the most part, clustered along the road west of Lake Maratanza and along Smiley Road, a road providing a direct route from Ellenville to hotels at Lake Minnewaska.
Pickers reported that they could earn $4 to $5 dollars a day working steadily. Many looked forward to the summer and coming to the Shawangunks to pick berries.
“From a baby I was carried into the mountains. It was just a thing, that every year you looked forward to get up there, you couldn’t wait...It’s like, it’s in your soul, you can’t get out of it. If you was livin’ it: if you could go there and live it like I lived it...and my brothers... It was like some kind of power, pulling...I just loved it. It was just like holding you there,” Fred Conklin, berry picker, said quoted from The Huckleberry Pickers, A Raucous History of the Shawangunk Mountains by Marc B. Fried.
The berry pickers used fire to help prune the berry bushes; burning the ends of the branches off encouraged new growth. There are many stories about the methods they used to start the fires at the end of the picking season. One was positioning a lit cigar beneath an open matchbook. Another method was to tar and feathering a possum and then set it lose, and one more was attaching a lit candle to a turtle’s back and sending the unfortunate animal into the underbrush.
At the end of the Second World War the wild berry picking industry dried up when the cultivation of berry trees took over. The remains of at least seven huckleberry camps can still be seen today at Sam’s Point.
Wild blueberries are still in season in the last week of July and first week of August and can be picked at Sam’s Point. “We ask that you limit it to about a pie’s worth,” Heidi Wagner, Preserve Manager, said.
Wild berries can also be found on Minnewaska State Park land. Easiest access would be down Blueberry Run, a single track path off Lower Awosting Carriage Road, and on the Peter’s Kill Trail on the Mohonk Preserve. Maps are available at the kiosks when you enter all of the parks.
The reports of bear sightings, bears also love blueberries, is about average this year, according to Wagner.
Since the ‘50s local blueberry cultivation has replaced the wild blueberry industry.
Kelder and Saunderskill Farms both grow high-bush blueberries; the more easily cultivated variety of the plant. Kelders has about three acres of blueberries under cultivation and Saunderskill has about two.
Blueberry bushes prefer a soil with a high acidity, according to Chris Kelder, owner of Kelder Farms. That’s why they naturally grow well on the ridge, the pitch pine contributes acidity to the soil.
On farms farmers add sulfur to bring the pH level of the soil down into the 4 range, 7 is neutral.
The pick-your-own fields on the farm are doing a good business this season.
“It’s quite busy on a nice day,” Kelder said. “And going from strawberries to blueberries- it’s easier picking, with strawberries you have to bend over, blueberries you can stand up”.
Blueberries are a slow crop. It takes a couple to three years for them to come in Kelder explained.
They take a lot of care, pruning an eighth of the bush back every winter. Kelder’s farm works with them all year round.
Dan Schoonmaker, of Saunderskill Farm, says that blueberries are a unique crop. They have a much longer season than other local berries. Sometime as long as six weeks. In July they are really the only local berry available.
You can get berries without picking them yourself. There are berries available by the pint in the stores at both farms’ markets.
If you just want to enjoy the fruits without the labor, there are home baked goods at both markets as well.
“We have a baker here who breaks pies and breads with the berries, which we sell here,” Kelder said.
At Saunderskill Farm Market the recipes for their baked goods come from Cathy Schoonmaker, who grew up in a family where there were fresh baked cookies every day. The four bakers at Saunderskill make blueberry muffins and pies.
Both farmers agree that the blueberries keep better than strawberries or raspberries but the season is coming to a close so get some while this unique local delight is still available.
