WEBBERVILLE, Mich. — This week's Things to Do is for all you raspberry lovers, or honestly anyone just looking for something relaxing to do outside. Here's a look at two u-pick farms in mid-Michigan that will have your basket full and belly feeling berry good.
Diederich's Berry Farm
Diederich's Berry Farm in Webberville has been around for 50 years. They grow a few crops primarily strawberries, but right now, you join in on the u-pick tradition and pick their raspberries.
"My dad moved here in 1972," said Adam Brannan. "We started growing raspberries, maybe five or six years ago."
Their raspberries are red and very sweet.
"We welcome pickers and families to come to the farm. And we'll give you a little ride out to the patch and show you where to pick the berries. And you can pick your own berries and take them home with you," Brannan said.
The raspberries are all lined up in rows. You can go high, or you can go low to try and find the ones.
A lot of families like to come out to the farm and see where their foods come from like Shilpa Hulbanni from East Lansing.
"It's really easy to go to the store and buy raspberries for example and not know the effort it takes to grow them and pick them. So I think it's a good learning opportunity so that we don't spoil food and that we value everything that happens behinds the scenes before it gets on our plates," Hulbanni said.
Berries cost $5.25 a pound, and they even offer pre-picked raspberries for $6. Appointments have to be scheduled to pick at this farm, and you can find out more information on their Facebook page.
Schafer Raspberries
Over in Williamston, you'll find Shafer Raspberries.
"Shafer Raspberries truly is a labor of love. It's our way to give back to our community," said Monica Schafer. "It's just a fun agritourism place that families can come and just enjoy a raspberry, and see how they grow."
On Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m., you can head to their green shed. You will find pint baskets and even tiny baskets for your little ones.
"It's all self explanatory. And majority of the time because we'll have one or two people out here at a time. And it might be self serve, there might be somebody there for you," Schafer said.
Their raspberries are also separated in rows just with wider paths to give you more space when picking.
"You can pick in the beginning, which is our fall burying raspberries. And then past the sunflower patch, we have summer bearing raspberries that bear also in the fall. So it's very spread out," Schafer said. "We see a lot of families. And that just warms my heart. Because I come from a larger family, I was raised on the farm, and we did a lot of gardens and raspberries and blueberry picking. And it kind of brought us back to that day."
She says they have six children and wanted to teach them how to work with people, so they came up with the farm idea.
"We wanted to teach them people skills, we wanted to teach them also what it takes to grow a plant and and produce something for our community," Schafer said.
Berries cost $4 per pint picked.
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