Berry Picking Near Dover: What You Need to Know
Dover sits in the heart of the Delmarva Peninsula's berry country, where the sandy coastal-plain soil is well suited to strawberries and the high-bush blueberries that thrive in Delaware and Maryland's mild, humid summers. Several Kent County farms run both seasons back to back from May through August.
Mid-Atlantic Berry Farms
The mid-Atlantic states host some of the most significant berry agriculture in the country, anchored by New Jersey's Pine Barrens region around Hammonton, long known as the Blueberry Capital of the World for its enormous cultivated blueberry production. Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and West Virginia all contribute strong strawberry and blueberry industries of their own, benefiting from the sandy coastal-plain soils of the Delmarva Peninsula and the fertile valleys further inland. The berry season here typically opens with strawberries in May, continues with blueberries through the summer, and in many areas overlaps with the blackberry brambles that grow wild throughout the Appalachian foothills.
Best Time to Go Berry Picking Near Dover
Strawberries in May, followed by blueberries from June through August across the Delmarva Peninsula's sandy coastal-plain farms.
Tips for Your Dover Berry Picking Trip
Delaware's coastal-plain berry farms benefit from sandy soil that drains quickly after rain, so a Dover-area u-pick trip is often still viable the day after a storm when other regional farms might be closed.