At the end of last month we headed up to the Public Coast Farm in Banks, Oregon, to visit the first Blueberry Jams event hosted by Public Coast Brewing, featuring live reggae music, U-pick blueberries, and plenty of Public Coast beer. We’d never visited the Farm before, but during the summer months it opens up for self-serve berry picking, farmstand produce sales, and beer.
The day of the event was warm and overcast, pleasant weather for being outdoors (especially fruit picking), and we arrived early enough to beat any big crowds. (We were comped general admission tickets as media.) A band was already on stage when we arrived (unfortunately I don’t know which one) and we proceeded to check out the drink selection—a lineup of Public Coast brews along with sodas, wine, and other non-alcoholic beverages.
Since the theme of the day was blueberries, I started with the Blueberry Wheat (brewed with Farm blueberries of course), and later enjoyed a Violent Violet (a blueberry double hazy IPA); the Blueberry Hard Lemonade was quite tasty, too.
Several food vendors were on hand to feed the crowd—Hawaiian grill and poke, picnic-style food (burgers, hot dogs), and ice cream. I don’t know if the VIP section also had a food option, but we enjoyed a plate from the Hawaiian truck while the reggae band performed a great rendition of Kenny Rogers’ “The Gambler.”
The farmstand had a variety of merch for sale, including 10th anniversary glassware for the brewery (celebrating ten this year; I bought a coffee mug and pint glass). It was also where you picked up your pint container for picking blueberries (as part of the price of admission); one pint per person.
The highlight was the berry picking; the Farm grows eight different varieties of blueberries occupying a fair amount of its 40 acres. Berries were ripe enough to be falling off the branches, and the bushes were full of them. Everyone samples as they go (it’s a great way to determine which varieties you like best), and we filled our containers to the point of overflowing with plump, sweet blueberries. I believe we ended up with something like two pounds of berries, which are now sitting in our freezer.
All in all, it was a good event if you were looking to make a day out of live music and beer, topped off with berry picking. I don’t know how busy it got later in the afternoon and toward early evening so I can’t judge how successful it was overall for Public Coast as an inaugural event, but it seemed to be getting lively by the time we left, so I would expect to see this event return next summer.
Here are some photos from the day (the header photo above was borrowed from Public Coast’s Instagram feed):
