CHILDS BLUEBERRIES UPICK IS CLOSED AT OF
AUGUST 15, 2025
CHILDS FARM STORE IS OPEN BY CALLING 716 229 9779 TO ARRANGE A MUTUALLY GOOD TIME TO OPEN FOR BOTH PARTIES. WE HAVE FROZEN CHILDS BLUEBERRIES, WINES, HONEY, ELDERBERRY ELIXIR. HEADING ABOVE DETAIL EACH ITEM. THANK YOU. FARMER DAN CHILDS
CHI
c
CHILDS BLUEBERRIES Was OPEN WED-SUN, 9 TO 6 BEGINNING WEDNESDAY, JULY 16TH.
"All Natural" or we do "nothing to our berries" is another word for neglected and neglected farms often have maggots in the berries. At Childs Blueberries, we follow Cornell Universities teaching and although our way is LOTS more work, the result is outstanding blueberries...Beyond Organic. See Farming Practice Dinosaurs in the link above to help make your decision as to where and why to pick at Childs Blueberries
Our price is still $3.50 per pound-same since before covid.
We do not charge admission. We do not weigh you before you enter the field (ha ha). We do have picnic tables and a gazebo if you want to pack a picnic but we do not have a restaurant on stilts with a couple of blueberry bushes to "UPICK" to draw you in. What we do have is 14,000 blueberry bushes ready for YOU on our farm--a real farm, farmed right!
On site: Wine Tasting, Elderberry Elixir, Maple Syrup, Jam, Honey. Chem Free Wines: Elderberry, Blueberry, Raspberry, Peach, Apple. All made with fruit we grow in the European Tradition of Artisan Wines.
W
DIRECTIONS:
From BUFFALO AND AREAS NORTH: although GPS may suggest otherwise, we suggest using your old mapping skills to take I90 to Route 400 at which point GPS will autocorrect. Route 400 turns into Route 16. Stay on Route 16 until you come to Franklinville. We are NOT the "All Natural" farm before Franklinville. So, stay on Route 16 for five miles past the light in Franklinville and make a right on the Five Mile Road. Go 1/2 mile, turn right on Williams Hollow. Go a country mile and make a left on South Cooper Hill. Stay on South Cooper Hill until you see the big farm sign. There are signs to the farm starting at Route 16.
From ERIE, JAMESTOWN, SALAMANCA: Again, GPS may suggest otherwise, we suggest using your old mapping skills to take I86 and get off at Exit 24--the Allegany/St. Bonaventure Exit. GPS will autocorrect and take you to the farm from there.
From HORNELL, CUBA, HINSDALE: We suggest getting off I86 at the Hinsdale Exit and making a RIGHT on Route 16. GPS will auto correct at that point and take you to the farm. Basically, take 16N to the Five Mile Road, Make a left. Follow the signs.
From OLEAN: Go past the Allegany-Limestone school and stay on the Five Mile Road until South Cooper Hill. Make a left. Go past Buttom Road staying on South Cooper Hill until it T's at Childs Blueberries.
A big thank you to all the 2024 many who filled our fields with laughter and peaceful "happy place" zen as you filled your baskets with what many consider the best blueberries on the planet. Each year the UPICK portion of our business grows larger and we continue to open up more and more of the fields to UPICK and next year, even more and earlier! We are honored you picked us to share your UPICK time with and to those who say, "Now that we have picked here, we will never go anywhere else" WOW, Thank you for that compliment. I started selling wild blackberries door to door at age six in South Buffalo, then had a route to deliver blueberries and vegetables door to door in East Aurora in my early teens, before there was even a farmers market to be found and have studied every printed word on blueberries for my entire life. I guess its my passion and I am glad to share it with you. See you next season. Farmer Dan
Childs Blueberries & Buffalo Ranch
CHILDS BLUEBERRIES & FARM WINERY
3172 Cooper Hill Road
Humphrey Township, Hinsdale Post Office, NY 14743
Text or Call 716.229.9779 Carrie; 716.378.2895 Dan
Email: ChildsBlueberryFarm@gmail.com
Pick Your Own in mowed, manicured fields, well maintained, the view stretches for miles, multiple varieties of blueberries to choose from and at this higher elevation (2250 feet above sea level) there are few, if any, mosquitoes and the soil, which was never amalgamated by the glaciers, is perfect for growing nutrient dense blueberries. One last benefit, besides mulching and weed whacking, we use agricultural vinegar to kill weeds which snakes hate so they leave.
WHAT TO BRING:
1. A picking bucket and containers to put your berries in after you pick them. We have picking buckets you can borrow--we lend it to you clean so we ask you to return it clean. We have containers to put your berries in at our cost.
2. There are picnic tables in the field. Please pack out what you pack in. Water, sunscreen, bug spray...poncho, sun hat, etc. You are coming to a farm so just give it some thought.
A true family farm micromanaged to improve quality,
health& safety of products.
By today's standards, we hands in the dirt farmers are few and far between but when you see and taste the difference between a old fashion farmer and a modern tractor jockey farmer, you will understand the difference.
At Childs Blueberries we use INTEGRATED PEST MANAGEMENT (IPM) techniques taught by Cornell to minimize the need to spray pesticides. As long as the pheromone traps are clear of pests, we don’t have to spray but if we catch one pest, like preventative medicine, we nip the problem in the bud before it multiplies using the mildest of sprays (derived from chrysanthemum flower) with low residual which washes right off in the rain. The key is to constantly monitor and micromanage the crop and only a small, TRUE family farm can do this.
We use hardwood sawdust to naturally keep acidity at the optimal levels. We send leaf samples to a laboratory who analyzes them to tell us what fertilizers (Iron, Potassium, Nitrogen, Trace Minerals, etc.) we need to retain the perfect soil for a tasty blueberry. We also irrigate the bushes, keep the fields well weeded and prune extensively. Beside "micro-managing" the field maintenance and upkeep, the blueberries we grow are so sweet because our soil is unique. Our hill top at 2250 feet did not have the soil amalgamated by the glaciers and thus it retained the naturally acidic, unique components that are like heaven on earth to blueberry bushes. Some folks in lowlands have decided they want to grow blueberries and forced the issue by chemically adjusting their soil to try to create the unique soil components which Cooper Hill has naturally but nature is tough to replicate and often the taste of the lowland blueberry is lacking. This soil contributes to Childs Blueberries being “nutrient dense” with all those “miracle berry” wonder components at higher levels than pretty much any berry grown anywhere not to mention a taste that is out of this world!
FREEZING BLUEBERRIES: place the entire carton of blueberries in the freezer until frozen. Pop the side of the carton and pour into the Bisphenol free, double thick Childs Blueberries freezer bags. Rinse when you take out just before using. We offer quantity discounts during peak season when we can harvest the most berries fast so watch for the limited time specials.
INCREASING SHELF LIFE: place a paper towel on the bottom of a bowl, pour in a layer of fruit, add a paper towel and repeat layers until done. Now place loose fitting tin foil over the bowl and refrigerate. This method will increase shelf life significantly.
Childs Play No Bake Pie: This is quick, easy and delicious! Combine 1 c. Childs blueberries and 3/4 c. water in medium sauce pan; simmer 3-4 minutes. Combine 3/4-c. sugar and 3 t. corn starch in a small bowl. Add sugar mixture to blueberries in saucepan; cook over medium heat stirring constantly until syrup is clear and thickened. Stir in 1 T. orange juice...Beat 8 oz. cream cheese until fluffy then add 2 T. orange juice mixing until well blended. Spread cream cheese mixture on to the bottom of a 9" graham cracker shell; cover with 3 c. FRESH Childs blueberries. Top with cooked blueberry mixture. Chill thoroughly and then top with whipped cream. Place a few choice berries on top of the whipped cream for decoration.
Blueberry Cobbler: Mix 2 c. flour, 1/2 c sugar, 4 tsp. baking powder, 2 tsp. melted butter, ½ tsp. salt, 1 c milk, 1 tsp. vanilla, together on low speed until smooth. Place into a greased 13 x 9 pan. Scatter 1-pint fresh or unthawed blueberries over the batter. Sprinkle with ¾ c. sugar. Pour 1 ½ c. boiling hot water covering everything but do not stir or mix. Carefully place in a preheated oven at 375 degrees for 30’ Bob Childs of Childs Blueberries favorite.
Here is the bad news about mass production which has evolved since 1984
USA CERTIFIED ORGANIC PRODUCE—99% of corporate mass production organic farms apply Spinosad sprays every 3-5 days by airplane or air blast sprayers and the food should not be eaten for three days after application and it does not wash off easily. They do this because pests did not just go away because they decided to become “organic” and people don’t want a worm in every berry. Washing highly recommended.
IMPORTED CERTIFIED ORGANIC PRODUCE--Certification is often meaningless due to low standards of certification inspection. Most South American labor, where the winter fruit comes from, is exploited and the $3.99 for a 4.4 oz container of winter blueberries translates to $12.49 a pint even though the corporations pay the labor low wages and sometimes exposes these people to unsafe sprays and working conditions.
CONVENTIONAL or CORPORATE FARMS use herbicides, fungicides and NEONICOTINOIDS insecticides in their mass production of food. These are the machine picked, loss leader box stores dump on the market at different times. The NEONICOTINOIDS enter through the leaf and enter the green berry and as it ripens, protects it from bugs. Harvest, if the rules are followed but are often not, is not allowed for 30 to 42 days after application and residual is high and systemic meaning all the washing in the world may not remove the chemical. No wonder life expectancy is dropping in many parts of the country! NEONICOTINOIDS kill bees and are banned in Europe.
Frozen “WILD” from Maine sold in box stores labels their berries as wild although they are conventionally farmed sourcing their berries from South America to supplement their supply obtained from Maine. The “wild” moniker makes people think they are organic but they are not. "ALL NATURAL" farm is often a misnomer for "neglected farm". That is a worm in every other berry situation. This is why so many of the box store frozen organic berries have an off flavor.
