(La Porte, IN) - Summer is flying by.  It’s already July… and it’s blueberry season.  Dean Ott runs two blueberry farms in northern La Porte County.

 

He says favorable weather recently has produced a bumper crop of good berries for their opening weekend. "We're pretty blue, I mean we're blue on varieties that are not normally blue at this time of year, said Ott. "which was great for people coming this past weekend. Normally it's just our early varieties in the first weekend, and people have to hunt and peck. Well, this past weekend they were picking the poundage. It was just a banner weekend, it really was."

 

Ott says berries have ripened up a bit early this year. "We're about ten days ahead of our normal ripening schedule," said Ott. "But that being said, we had three days last week that were pretty chilly; we had three days this week that's been pretty chilly. So maybe we're slowing down a little bit, fingers crossed."

 

He’s crossing his fingers hoping some cooler weather sticks around to accommodate late-season pickers. Many people, said Ott, are just accustomed to coming out later in the summer.

 

Ott and his family run Stateline Blueberries on 1000 North, west of SR 39. A couple of years ago, he took over the Blueberries of Indiana farm next door. The former grows about 14 varieties of blueberries, the latter almost 100.

 

Ott says business has been brisk at his farms, especially since two of his competitors didn’t open this season.