Pick-Your-Own Raspberries and Pie Cherries in July

HOURS: 7am-11am and 4pm-7pm seven days a week, during the season. We close nowadays during the hottest hours because for years no one came then.

OPENING DAY: Sometime in early July, call (603)448-1511 for latest information. Or check the Valley News for our ads. Everything is late this year, so we won't be open before the Fourth.

CLOSING DAY: Sometime in late July, or even early August. Again, a call works best.

PICKING CONDITIONS: Call ahead -- on heavily-picked days, it might pay to wait and come later. New berries ripen each night when the weather is warm. On a day when we have to close early, pick up a consolation card for a discount on your next visit.

LADDERS: Cherry-pickers will find picking ladders here. We offer the ladders after the lower branches of the trees begin to look picked out. Otherwise people would knock off too much good fruit on their way to the tops.

CONTAINERS: Bring your own containers, if possible, to take home your fruit. We do have cardboard trays and pint containers here, but they cost a little. For the actual picking we lend you pails that hang from your neck to leave both hands free.

E-Mail: info@povertylaneorchards.com: We can't promise to answer this with perfect promptness, but for special requests or advance arrangements, try it.

Our raspberry field covers about two acres, containing four different varieties: Reveille, Boyne, Killarney, and Taylor. Around the raspberry rows stand Montmorency pie-cherry trees. This year the crops look good, though late like everything else. The field is open during July, sometimes into early August. The cherries run out well before the raspberries, so if you like pie cherries try to run up here in the first week or two of July. We decide exactly when to open only a day or two ahead, because berries come on fast.

FOR CURRENT BERRY& CHERRY INFO, call (603)448-1511. Farming is unpredictable, so calling makes sense. And nothing beats those fruits right off the branch.