NC High Country Berries
What says “summer” to you? To many of us, berries, be they blue, black, red, purple, or other hues, speak the language of warm weather and tart to sweet tastes. Visions of blue and red stained fingertips, toes dipping in cool mountain streams and the smell of a warm berry pie are a memory of a well-spent mountain youth.

North Carolina’s High Country is noted for delicious berries, products of cold winters, plentiful spring rains, and cool summers, which result in a bounty of tasty, blemish-free, fruits. Berries in the NC High Country usually ripen from late June to September.

U-PICK ADVENTURES

• Blue Ridge Parkway: Berries may be harvested in the wild. Blue Ridge Parkway visitors may pick one gallon per person per day. Our favorite berry picking trails are:
  • Fodder Stack Trail (BRP MP 241.0)
  • Green Knob Trail (BRP MP 295.9)
  • Boone Fork Trail (BRP MP 296.5) TIP: From the trailhead, go straight to reach the berries quicker!
  • Craggy Gardens (BRP MP 364.2)
    
    
• North Carolina State Parks: Sorry, picking berries in NC State Parks in prohibitied
  
  
• U-Pick Farms:
  • Old Orchard Creek, Lansing NC: Blueberries
  • The Old Store at Grassy Creek: Blueberries
  • Avery Farms, Plumtree NC: Blueberries, Blackberries, Strawberries
  • Bethel Valley Farms, Vilas NC: Raspberries, Blackberries, Blueberries
  • Greenes Blueberry Patch, Boone NC: Blueberries
  • Snow Farm, Vilas NC: Blueberries
  • Swinging Bridge Farm, Boone NC: Blueberries
  • Vannoy Farm, Crumpler NC: Blueberries
  • Wayland's Blueberry Hill, West Jefferson: Blueberries

• Farmer's Markets: Your best bet for finding local berries is at a High Country Farmers Market in July! Click HERE for a list
  
  
• Local Restaurants: Of course, the High Country is also home to many cooks and chefs who elevate local berries to high art by way of pies, tarts, puddings, and other, more exotic, dishes and baked goods. Call the NC High Country Welcome Center for regional recommendations at 828-264-1299 or try one of these:
  • Bistro Roca, Blowing Rock NC
  • Boondocks, West Jefferson NC
  • Stick Boy Bakery & Kitchen, Boone NC

• NC Blackberry Festival: Always held the 2nd weekend in July in Lenoir (just 15 minutes from Blowing Rock NC), the festival has plenty of blackberries for sale, blackberry infused dishes, live music and crafts, a parade AND the world's largest patchwork of blackberry cobbler!

• Award Winning Blueberry Moonshine: One of our local distilleries in Wilkesboro NC has found another use for blueberries! Stop in ay Copper Barrel Distillery for a tasting. 

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