Fresh blackberries in Brussels, Illinois
Open July through October
Blackberries we grew, picked the same morning in Brussels.
One month a year — July, more or less — the blackberries on our vines come in. We pick them when they’re inky and let go easy. They go straight to the stand and into the weekend pies.
Why blackberries are different
A real blackberry is fragile, fleeting, and almost never on a shelf.
If grocery store blackberries have ever turned to mush in your fridge by Wednesday, that’s the system working as designed.
- Most grocery blackberries are picked half-ripe so they survive shipping. Sour, woody, gone in two days.
- The truly ripe ones bruise if you breathe on them. They have to be sold within a day of picking.
- And the season is short. About four weeks. Miss it and the next batch is twelve months away.
- If you want a real blackberry, you have to find someone who grows them and sells them the same day.
That someone is us, on the other side of the river, for about four weeks every July.
Same vines. Same family.
Picked when they’re inky. Sold the same day.
Our blackberry vines are part of the same orchard Jake Hagen started in 1937. We pick them by hand in the morning and they go on the stand by afternoon.
4
Weeks the season runs. Miss it and you wait a year.
0
Days between vine and stand. We pick in the morning, sell that afternoon.
89
Years our family has worked these rows.
How blackberries work at the stand
Buy a container. Or a flat.
Sold by the half-pint, pint, or flat. Pre-order a flat by phone if you’re jamming or freezing.
Drive over.
Brussels Ferry from the Grafton side. Golden Eagle Ferry from Missouri. About an hour either way.
Grab a container.
A pint for snacking. A flat for jam. Pre-order a flat by phone if we’re selling out fast.
Try one in the parking lot.
Pop one in your mouth before you leave. The juice is darker than a grocery store has ever sold.
Weekend pies.
Blackberry pies come out of our bakery on Saturday and Sunday. Get one before they’re gone.
What people do with a flat
Eat them now. Bake them now. Freeze the rest.
Blackberries don’t hold like peaches. Most of a flat needs to be used within a few days, or frozen.
Eat them by the handful
Cold from the fridge, with cream or with cottage cheese.
Blackberry pie
We bake them every weekend in season. See the bakery.
Jam & preserves
A flat makes about 8 half-pints of jam. February breakfast solved.
Freeze them flat
Single layer on a sheet pan. Bag once frozen. Smoothies and crisps until next July.
Come get blackberries
Don’t miss the window.
Blackberry season is about four weeks. Call ahead if you want a flat held.
Open daily, in season
- Monday12 PM – 5 PM
- Tue – Sat10 AM – 5 PM
- Sunday11 AM – 5 PM
Blackberries: July only. Other fruit through the end of October.
3879 Illinois River Road
Brussels, IL 62013
Take Brussels Ferry from Grafton, or Golden Eagle Ferry from the Missouri side.