Here in Indiana, we have experienced an exceptionally rainy summer season. The amount of rainfall that Hoosiers received in June broke a previous record that had been held since the 1950s. The abundance of rainfall can potentially have adverse affects on local crops and businesses. The local blueberry patches have been feeling the affect of the rainy weather, and so have their blueberries.
One local farm in particular has seen considerably less businesses because of the rain. Pat Goin the co-owner of Goin’s Blueberry Lane in North Judson said that since the farm began picking on June 22 there has only been 8 days without some form of rain. Though business has been affected, Goin reports no problems with the fruit itself, “We have standing water by the roadside, we have bushes that are dying out but I will say that we have some very dry ‘you pick’ fields that are good with wonderful fruit in them. I think we have a nice crop of blueberries, they’re large in size. Some of the fields are underwater but ‘you pick’, there’s no standing water whatsoever.”
Goin’s Blueberry Lane is open rain or shine, 7 days a week from 7 am until 6 pm. They provide ready picked and packaged berries but also have ‘you pick’ fields where customers can walk through and pick out their own fruit. Pat Goin predicts the farm will stay open through the first few weeks of August.
Another local business has similar reports. Johnathan Pelsy, owner and operator at Sunrise Harvest Farms in Winamac says that although the rain can be bad for business, it is actually good for the blueberries. He said that despite some fields being underwater, the crop itself has not been negatively affected. Sunrise Harvest is open mornings Monday through Saturday from 7:30 am until noon and afternoons on Monday, Thursday and Friday from 4 until 7 pm.
