The short version: Blueberry season is fading and blackberries and peaches are coming on at Love Shack Farms, a family u-pick in Kevil, about twenty minutes west of Paducah in Ballard County. Bring your own buckets, and call ahead for what's ripe and what it runs, because the good stuff turns over fast this time of year.
There is a window every July when the fruit changes hands on the vine. The blueberries go soft and quit, and the blackberries come on heavy and warm, and the first peaches show up with the fuzz still on them. That window is open right now.
Love Shack Farms, out on Upshaw Road in Kevil, is a you-pick operation that runs a whole summer's succession: blueberries into blackberries, peaches into apples. That is how a small farm keeps pickers coming all season instead of banking on one crop. Right now it is the middle of the changeover, which is the best time to go.
Why it's worth the twenty minutes
Grocery-store blackberries are picked hard and shipped green. A blackberry pulled off the cane in Kevil on a July morning, still warm from the sun, is a different thing entirely, and you will eat half your bucket before you get to the truck. The peaches are the same story. This is the taste you drive for.
Kevil is about twenty minutes west of Paducah, an easy run for a Saturday morning. Bring your own containers, wear closed shoes for the brambles, and go early before the heat runs everybody off.
Before you load up
The one thing to do first is call. U-pick farms live and die by the weather and the week, and what is ripe today may be picked out by the weekend. Prices and hours shift, so get the day's word from the farm rather than an old listing. Ask what is ready, what it costs a pound, and when they open Saturday.
Quick questions
Where is Love Shack Farms? On Upshaw Road in Kevil, Ballard County, about twenty minutes west of Paducah.
What can you pick right now? Blackberries and peaches are the July crops, following the tail end of blueberry season.
Do I need to bring anything? Bring your own buckets or containers and wear closed-toe shoes for the blackberry brambles. Call ahead for the day's hours and price.
