Experience Pick Your Own Blackberries Like You've Never Tasted Before!
Pick your own blackberries are ripe and in season west of Boston from the end of July through mid-September but can move by as much as 2 weeks either direction. To be sure you never miss your favorite fruit season, be sure to sign up for our Email Picking Alerts.
Blackberry Season
Pick your own blackberries west of Boston is available from the end of July through mid-September. However, due to weather the season can move by as much as 2 weeks either direction.
At times throughout the season, you are able to pick your own blackberries AND blueberries together with our Combo Box.
Our Blackberry Varieties
We have almost an acre of blackberries here at Tougas, and although the pick your own blackberry field is smaller than any other fruit we grow, they pack a huge punch in flavor!
What it Takes to Grow Blackberries
We spend time every year pruning our blackberry bushes to maintain and promote berry growth.
Blackberries flower in the spring and are visited by the bees we hire-in and purchase-in to pollinate the bloom. Without our pollinators, there wouldn’t be any berries! (or any fruit on the farm!)
In addition to pruning and pollinating. we train and hand-tie our blackberries to trellises for their health, ease of picking and best fruit possible.
Blackberry Delights from our Farm Store & Kitchen Menu
PYO Blackberries Experience
Where to go: Find parking in our large, easy and free lot. Our blackberry fields are entered from our West Entrance, across the street from main parking lot – look for our signs directing you to the correct entrance.
How to Pay: At our Field Entrance you will purchase your PYO Field Admission. We accept cash, MC, Visa, Amex and SNAP cards.
Getting into the Field: Enjoy a walk in our beautiful grounds. Occasionally picking fields are only accessible by foot but if you require a ride, please ask and we will do our very best to accommodate
Timing: Blackberry picking takes, on average 45 minutes, depending on the age of pickers and how much fruit you are looking to pick. A perfect amount of time to pick some fresh-from-the-field fruit and then grab an ice cream and visit the animals.
- Closed-toed shoes
- Sunscreen
- Sunglasses and/or a hat
- Bring or Purchase water
Q. Why do you direct me to a specific section of the field?
A. Our goal is always to provide the best berries possible! One way to accomplish this goal is to have people pick out rows, one by one. That way the next person always has an abundance of berries to pick.
Q. Why do I have to ask an Harvest Guide if I want to move rows?
A. Our Harvest Guides are responsible for getting the entire field picked and keep track of what still needs to be picked. By asking where to go you enable our Guides to keep track of where needs to be picked and what is now finished for the day.
How to Pick Your Own Blackberries
- Park in one of our free parking lots
- Follow the blackberry signs to the location we are picking at the moment
- You and your group will be assigned a picking spot. Pick All RIPE FRUIT – LARGE AND SMALL in your spot. Ripe fruit is DEEP BLACK with no red or green. Picking ALL the ripe fruit in your section helps us grow the best berries! Please do your share to help.
- Pick from the top of the blackberry bush down.
- Spread the leaves and LIFT THE CLUSTERS of fruit. You will find lots of beautiful fruit hiding in “plain sight”. Pinch the stems so that you don’t crush the berries. They keep longer with their caps intact.
- If you have picked all the ripe fruit in your spot, please ask a Harvest Guide to assign you a new spot. Please walk only between the rows and in cross aisles. Do Not Cut Through Bushes!
- Place any over ripe or damaged fruit into a provided “icky berry” bucket. When you are finished picking, give the bucket to a staff person or leave it at the composting station. This is crucial for our pest managing system. We thank you for helping us keep things tidy.
- Supervise your children, keep them close, and teach them how to pick correctly. Have fun!
- Need a new spot? Please Ask! Need more packaging or help getting fruit back to the building? Please Ask!
Whether you want to pick your own or visit our store for Farm-Picked berries, we are sure you will love our fresh, ripe, juicy blackberries. So big and delicious – they are rich and complex, like a fine wine.
The Blackberry Varieties We Grow:
Natchez Blackberries
Natchez is an excellent thorn-less blackberry which crops early in the season, and has the characteristic semi-upright, spine-free growing habit. The yield of fruit is twice that of its sister variety Arapaho, and it produces a consistent large berry. This delicious berry is one of the first producers of the season.
Chester Blackberries
‘Chester’ is largest fruiting thornless blackberry grown, individual fruits measure up to 1 inch long, as big as small plums. The flowers are a light pink and decorative. Just 45 berries will fill a quart basket, compared to more than 100 regular blackberries.