Pick Your Own

PYO Strawberries

mid to late June **CLOSED FOR THE SEASON 6/27/24**

2024 Price

$5.00 per pound

Hours

CLOSED FOR THE SEASON.

Our pick-your-own hours are dependent on the weather and the picking conditions. Check this page for daily updates and please call (802) 785-4737 before coming out to the farm, just to make sure there are ripe berries and that PYO is open.

For the safety of our guests and crew, picking is always closed during inclement weather like thunderstorms or heavy rain.

Picking Procedure

A Cedar Circle staff person will be down at the patch on weekend days and can help direct you. Otherwise, please carefully read through the following picking procedures:

• Bringing your own container(s)? To make checkout easier, stop in the farmstand to have your containers weighed before picking.
• Clean your hands at the hand washing sink next to the porta potty, or use hand sanitizer.
• If you need containers to pick into, we’ll have quarts and flats for you down at the patch.
• Go pick your berries! The rows with blue flags are open for picking.
• Head back up to the farmstand with your berries to pay. You can pay with a credit card, cash, check, EBT, gift certificate, or CSA Card.

Picking Etiquette

• Food safety is important to us! Please use hand sanitizer or wash your hands before picking, and only touch berries that you are going to pick.
• Dogs are not allowed on the farm’s grounds, with the exception of service dogs that have been trained for public access and to perform specific tasks for a person with a disability. This is for food safety reasons; the FDA’s Food Safety Modernization Act regulates domesticated animals on farms and activity must be closely monitored, so as to avoid animal contamination of our crops and fields.
  
• Keep your family together and children close by.
• Pick in the rows with flags. This is where the berries are more abundant and ready to be picked.

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PYO Flowers

July 17, 2024 to September (1st Frost)

Explore our beautiful cut flower garden with your friends and family, and harvest organic blooms to take home. A great activity for children during the summer months!

By appointment only for more than 2 buckets.

Looking for a fun activity with friends or family? Book a PYO Flower Harvest & Arranging Party!

2024 Prices:

Most flowers and herbs – $20.00 per lb
Large Sunflowers, Broom Corn, Tall Amaranth – $5.50 per lb
Peony – $5.00 per stem

Add-on: Lisianthus – $46.00 per lb - This flower makes a lovely addition to bouquets! We are growing lisianthus in a high tunnel in 2024. When available, it will be pre-picked and in the farmstand for purchase.

Flower Picking Tips

What to Bring

• Scissors. While we will have a few pairs of scissors available, our supplies are limited! Bring your own if possible.
• A bucket or container that can hold water for your freshly cut stems. Flowers wilt quickly in the heat and do best when placed directly into water. If you forget to bring a container or don’t have one, we do have small buckets for sale near the pottery area.

Cutting Flowers in the Garden

• Look for flowers that have freshly opened buds and avoid cutting flowers that haven’t opened yet. Varieties of flowers that produce one blossom per stem (such as zinnias, dahlias or asters) prefer to be cut after the bud has begun to open. Varieties that produce multiple flowers per stem (like snapdragons, larkspur, and delphiniums) prefer to be cut when blooms on the lower 1/3 of the stem have opened. The remaining blooms will continue to open after cutting.
• Cut the stem of the flower above a new leaf set to encourage branching. To ensure that our gardens continue producing, please do not cut stems longer than 12 inches unless it is a Gladiola or a Sunflower. Gladiolas and Sunflowers can be cut all the way to the ground. Harvesting extra long stems with multiple buds and branching points will count as more than one stem. Lisianthus will have clusters of buds at the top of a stem; in this case, you may cut a stem with buds.
• Try to find a mixture of textures, colors, and flower varieties, which will add interest to your bouquets. For greenery, look for Bupleurum, Eucalyptus and ornamental grasses.

Keep Your Arrangement Looking Fresh!

• Discard any foliage that will be below the water level in your vase. Leaves under water will break down quickly and clog up stems resulting in a shorter vase life.
• Cut your stems on an angle when arranging your flowers in a vase. This will allow the plant to take up more water.

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PYO Blueberries

mid-July to August - OPEN as of Wed. July 10, 2024

Our organic pick your own blueberry patch is open dawn till dusk and operates on the honor system. The patch is located 1/2 mile south of the farmstand, on Pavillion Road. Park at “Sunny Fields Berry Farm”.

Price & Payment

2024 Price: $4.50 per pint

We no longer accept payments at the blueberry patch. During business hours, you can pay with a credit card, cash, check, EBT, or CSA Card at the farmstand or Hello Café.

Off-hour or remote payment options include:

• Credit Card — Fill out this form and enter your credit card details to submit payment.
• CSA Card — Fill out this form to tell us how many pints you picked, and we’ll process your payment during business hours.
• Check – Mail a check, made payable to Cedar Circle Farm, to 225 Pavillion Road, East Thetford, VT 05043
• Cash & EBT — Not available outside of normal farmstand & café business hours.
• Venmo — @cedarcirclefarmeducationcenter (not @cedarcirclefarm)

Hours

Dawn to dusk. For the safety of our customers and crew, we always close the patch during inclement weather like thunderstorms or heavy rain.

How It Works

• Containers & Measuring. Bring your own containers or use the ones down at the blueberry shack. The cost is calculated by the pint, so make sure to grab at least one pint container to measure while you pick, and keep count as you go.
• Clean Your Hands. Wash your hands at the foot pump sink by the porta potty, or use hand sanitizer before picking.
• Pick berries! Often you’ll find the best picking is at the end of the rows.
• Pay for your berries. At the farmstand during business hours or using our remote payment options (see above).

Please note that dogs are not allowed on the farm’s grounds, with the exception of service dogs that have been trained for public access and to perform specific tasks for a person with a disability. This is for food safety reasons; the FDA’s Food Safety Modernization Act regulates domesticated animals on farms and activity must be closely monitored, so as to avoid animal contamination of our crops and fields.

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PYO Apples

August–October

Our certified organic orchard features over 20 different varieties of apples that have never been sprayed. For this reason the apples are cooking and juicing quality only, with the exception of a few trees.

We encourage walking to the orchard from the farmstand or the overflow parking lot. If you do need to drive and park at the orchard for accessibility reasons, please park on the lawn in front of the orchard, not in the road.

A lot of the fruit is pretty high up in the trees. Ladders and climbing the trees are prohibited, however, a couple of apple picking poles are available for you to use. Please feel free to bring your own!

2024 Price: 99¢ per pound

The pears and plums did not fare well with the excessive rainfall this season. If you see any that you would like to harvest, you may do so for the same price as the PYO apples, $0.99/lb.

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PYO Pumpkins

October

Our pumpkin patch is open for the month of October. Please bring all pumpkins to the farmstand to be weighed during business hours.

Price
75¢ per lb

Pumpkin Patch Location
From the farmstand’s back entrance and the Hello Café, walk down the dirt road to your left. The public pumpkin patch is the first one on your left, as you walk away from the farmstand and towards the river. If you pass a little shack, also on your left, you’ve gone too far! It’s a bit of a walk, so feel free to bring one of our wagons down with you.

Dog Policy
Dogs are not allowed on the farm’s grounds, with the exception of service dogs that have been trained for public access and to perform specific tasks for a person with a disability.