Earl’s Farm Market

• 1630 Blue Star Highway
• Fennville, MI 49408
• (269) 227-2074
• Website

Sometimes I think my mom comes for visits just because she loves Michigan produce.  Every time she comes, we have to find a farm market and pick up pallets of fruits and veggies for her to take home to my grandma to turn in to jams, jelly’s, and pies.

This trip, my mom really, really wanted blackberries.  We determined that blackberries probably aren’t in season yet, but we would still go looking for them.

Since we were already in Fennville for a stop at Crane’s Pie Pantry, I found a U-Pick place just south of town on Blue Star Highway.  Earl’s Farm Market became our destination as soon as we finished up with dessert lunch.

Earl’s Farm Market started life as Earl’s Berry Farm.  There are fields of blueberries that separate the buildings from the road.  You have to travel down a pretty long driveway to get to the farm market.  On our way, my mom pointed over to some bushes that had some sort of red berries on them and we tried to figure out what they were. 

The first thing we did was head in to the market to look around.  They had a sign that said there was blackberries somewhere but we couldn’t find them.  My mom found an employee who told her those red berries we saw on the way in were actually unripened blackberries.  She grabbed a couple pints and told my mom we were free to go look for some ripe ones but not to take any unless they were completely black.

The five of us headed out to the field with two small pint boxes and started picking.  To our surprise, we found quite a few ripe ones among the throng of unripe berries.  We quickly filled up the two pints.  We sent my dad back to get some more boxes and he met a little resistance from that same employee because she still didn’t believe there were enough ripe ones out there to fill up two pints let alone four.  Eventually, she gave him two more and again cautioned him to look closely at the berries and make sure they were completely black before picking.

We easily filled up the four pints and headed back to the market.  We didn’t need much else, but we did look around to see what they had.  Had we not already eaten at Crane’s, we could have gotten pies and baked goods in Earl’s shop, but we had already eaten.

In addition to the berries, J picked up a huge lemon and we headed to pay.  The pints of berries were $2.50 each and the lemon was $.50.  For less than $12, we got incredibly fresh Michigan grown blackberries that will most likely end up in some kind of jam or pie.

My family had a blast picking blackberries at Earl’s.  It’s been a really long time since any of us have done a U-Pick.  I can remember doing apples in Southern Illinois when I was a kid and I even remember picking strawberries once, but when exactly that was, I have no idea.  It’s just too bad there weren’t more that were ripe or we would have filled a gallon bucket instead of just a few pint boxes.