Blueberry Picking - where to go?

Does anyone have any recommendations for places to go Blueberry picking? It's time to get my little boy out of the city so he can see once and for all that food is NOT grown in the grocery store!! What's the closest and best place (we live in downtown Chicago).

Thanks all, Happy Taster Gal

The Blueberry Ranch
The largest dollar volume u-pick blueberry farm in the Midwest. PO Box 647, Granger, IN 46530. Phone: 219-255-5773

Also:

http://www.urbanext.uiuc.edu/fresh/swmichigan.html

http://www.pickyourown.org/ILsouth.htm

http://www.urbanext.uiuc.edu/fresh/neillinois.html

Are there any more up-to-date opinions on what farms might have the best blueberries this weekend? I have become addicted to (a slight variation of) the Blueberry Boy Bait recipe that's floating around the internet. I ran across it on the Smitten Kitchen site, and really want to try it with some fresh local berries (and stock up for winter cobblers).

Any thoughts would be much appreciated!

i just went yesterday to http://www.blueskyberryfarm.com/default.htm and thought it was pretty good, but think u can probably find better places to go.

pros - lots of berries, friendly workers, few picnic tables, small swingset etc.. for kids
cons - ppl not staying in theri assigned rows, paths between bushes not cleared of grass & branches w thorns, slightly more expensive then other places was $10 per bucket (5.5 - 6.5 lbs)

my biggest problem was the ground not being cleared away which caused my 2 girls to come home w/ scratches all over their legs.

My blueberrries won't be ready for 1 - 2 years for you pick. However, I am now open for raspberry picking! No thorns, grass walkways. upberries.com

razbry wrote:My blueberrries won't be ready for 1 - 2 years for you pick. However, I am now open for raspberry picking! No thorns, grass walkways. upberries.com

Nice website Razbry! Best of wishes for your business!

I meant to report back on our blueberry-picking last Sunday. Since no one chimed in with their favorite places before then, we ended up at Billy Boy's Blueberry Barn in Michigan City. It was a perfect day for picking, though the storms had left the farther reaches of each aisle inaccessible without wading through several inches of water (this did not stop many children).

They advertise several varieties, which they do have, but the varieties are all mixed up, so you can't easily pick a pint of this and a pint of that. There were some good berries, but I think there are certainly better to be had. The price for U-Pick was $1.40 a pint/pound.

This farm is very (very, very) close to Stop 50, where we ate lunch post-picking (report to follow).

Hi- Anybody that wants to upick blueberries, better do it soon. Because of the hot weather we have been having this summer, the season is almost over. I do not have any recommended places to pick blueberries. My sister does not raise any berries. Hope this helps, Nancy