Hand-shaped state offers plenty of hands-on agricultural experiences

GRAND HAVEN, Mich. -- What a dilemma: "now" or "later"?

Between your thumb and forefinger, you've got a plump, purple blueberry, fresh off the bush. It and a couple dozen of its equally enticing sisters would taste great scattered across a couple scoops of vanilla ice cream back home.

But as you stand under a hot sun, in a field along western Michigan's Fruit Belt, you can't resist. "Now" wins.

You toss it in your mouth -- dirt be damned -- and the berry explodes, its juice washing over your tongue and trickling down your parched throat.

Ah, well. Patience is overrated.

Anyway, there's more -- many, many more -- where that one came from.

At Indiana's Fair Oaks Farms, you see a lot about milk production, but you don't actually get to milk a cow. But hands-on agricultural experiences are as close as Michigan, where there are hundreds of U-Pik-'Em farms that allow visitors to get elbow-deep into the agriculture experience.

Michigan is known worldwide as the home of the American automobile business, but the Wolverine State's second largest industry is farming. Michigan takes the U.S. crown in blueberries, with an annual production valued at $165 million.

Americans eat about three-quarters of a pound per person annually, both fresh and frozen, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. A little Michigan blueberry picking might throw those numbers off in your house.

Michigan picking farms range from splashingly commercial -- with hay rides, petting zoos, playgrounds and pre-packaged products -- to bare bones. Wrapping up a recent beach weekend getaway along the Lake Michigan shore, we went the no-frills route.

Following some hand-written signs planted alongside Route 31, we ended up in a no-name farm between Grand Haven and Holland. A lonely, unmanned shack offered empty buckets, a scale and an honesty policy. Out back, there were dozens of rows of blueberry bushes -- about chin high for this 6-foot, 4-inch picker -- ready for plucking.

The fruits, said to grow especially well in the west Michigan climate cooled by lake breezes, cluster in knots of five or six berries. A gentle pull frees them from the bush and into the pail as birds, attracted by the fruit, chirp merrily overhead.

About a half hour of picking by our crew of four -- interrupted by the occasional snacking -- harvested about 4 pounds. At 85 cents a pound, the bounty seemed ridiculously cheap. Sturdy cardboard shipping boxes were available to ferry our precious cargo home -- well, some of it anyway. Many handfuls managed to disappear in the backseat as we sped back to Chicago along Interstate 94.

Blueberry season in Michigan runs between July and just past Labor Day, but Michigan features pick-your-own crops through much of the year: strawberries start in June, cherries are ready in July and August, apples and pumpkins can be had in the fall and Christmas trees can be chopped in the winter.

Whatever the crop, it's a sweet deal.

For more information, the Michigan Farm Marketing and Agri-Tourism Association offers a good guide at www.michigan farmfun.com.

Andrew Herrmann