Berry beer? Yup, that's Greenbluff too
At Big Barn Brewing Co. in Greenbluff visitors can pick the fruit which goes into their ale, or just sip a lavender IPA and enjoy the music. (Photos/Nina Culver)
Beck’s Harvest House is a popular Greenbluff farm, featuring beautiful summer views, a country store, and homemade pumpkin donuts at their wildly popular fall festival.
Eli Deitz of Greenbluff’s Big Barn Brewing Co. holds a bottle of Black Dog Stout, named after Nandi, the farm’s black lab.
Big Barn Brewing Co. makes a variety of beers, using their farm-grown hops and fruit such as apricots, strawberries, and peaches.
The Greenbluff area north of Spokane started as a place to go to pick fresh fruit, but in recent years it’s evolved into much more than that. In addition to fresh fruit you can also buy farm fresh eggs, drink a fresh-brewed ale and have lunch.
There’s something to appeal to all ages at the nearly 40 farms clustered just east of Highway 2. Many growers have pre-picked fruit and vegetables available if you don’t want to do it yourself. Some also have stores where you can buy your favorite fruit already made into a jam, jelly, syrup, pie, ice cream or other tasty treat.
At the Big Barn Brewing Company, you can get your strawberries in an ale.
“That’s a big favorite,” said brewer Eli Deitz. “Sixty pounds of strawberries went into that beer.”
The beer will be released at a special launch event on July 6 at the brewery, located at 16004 N. Applewood Lane. A food truck will be on site beginning at 10 a.m. and the tap house opens at noon.
Deitz’s parents, Jane and Craig Deitz, opened Bodacious Berries in 1999 while both still worked as teachers.
“We just started with raspberries and sold out of the garage,” Eli said.
In 2005 they bought the big red barn next door that now serves as the home for Bodacious Berries. His father was a long-time home brewer and launched Big Barn Brewing in 2012. They make a lavender IPA with lavender grown at a farm down the road and a Black Dog Stout named after their elderly black lab Nandi who wanders the property.
“All our customers love her,” he said.
Their beers are also sold at local Yoke’s and Rosauer’s stores as well as local farmer’s markets, including Liberty Lake, Kendall Yards and the Perry neighborhood.
In addition to growing their own hops, they also grow strawberries, raspberries, peaches, pumpkins and Christmas trees.
The tap house is open from noon to 8 p.m. Wednesday through Sunday year-round. The hours for fruit picking vary depending on ripeness and availability.
They have live music and food trucks every summer Sunday from 2 to 5 p.m. and add music on Saturdays in October during the Apple Festival. The best way to check whether a farm is open for picking is to visit Greenbluffgrowers.com and click on Fresh on the Bluff.
One of the largest Greenbluff growers is Beck’s Harvest House at 9919 E. Greenbluff Road. They’re open from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily from June to Thanksgiving. They have a charming store that sells home décor as well as wine, pies and ice cream. You can get lunch from the Country Kitchen and they’re famous for the pumpkin donuts they sell during the Apple Festival - but come early. The donut line gets long fast.
“We serve a great lunch every day,” said owner Marilyn Beck. “We have fruit, whatever’s in season.”
They offer wagon rides to the fruit trees and live music every Sunday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. “We serve mimosas on Sunday mornings,” she said.
During the Apple Festival the Harvest House also has a corn maze, food trucks and pumpkins by the ton. “In the fall we have a big play area,” Beck said.
Beck said sometimes the weekends can be quite busy, particularly during the Apple Festival. She recommends that people come during the week to pick fruit if they can.
“If they come during the week there’s no music but there’s fewer people,” she said.
The fruit and vegetables available vary by season. Strawberries are ripe in early July and cherries are generally available in July and August. Tomatoes are ripe all summer long and usually generally ripen in early August. Some growers also offer apricots, pears, cucumbers, corn, carrots, squash and potatoes.
Cherries are popular at Greenbluff. The 41st annual Cherry Pickers Trot, a 4-mile run/walk through Greenbluff, is set for July 19 at Beck’s Harvest House. The trot is preceded by the popular cherry pit spit competition at 5:30 p.m. where people see who can spit a cherry pit the furthest. The records are 32 feet nine inches for women and 49 feet four inches for men.
A free Tot Trot for kids 5 and under starts at 6 p.m. and the Cherry Picker’s Trot starts at 7 p.m. The evening includes food trucks and live music by Blue Water Strangers. The cost for the Cherry Picker’s Trot is $10 per person or $30 for a family of four before July 6. Register online at Runsignup.com.
The growers generally go all out for the Apple Festival, which is held every weekend in September and October. In addition to u-pick or already picked fruit, growers have hay rides, pony rides, petting zoos, live music, food trucks, corn mazes and more.
No matter the time of year, it’s easy to make a day out of visiting the growers at Greenbluff. You can get fresh eggs from Sunshine Farm, have lunch at the High Country Orchard Bistro while your kids play on the playground out back and then pick some fresh lavender at the Fleur de Provence Lavender Farm. There are even pottery classes on the first Saturday of every month from July to December at Willowpond Pottery and Herbs, which also sells handcrafted pottery.
The best way to reach Greenbluff from Coeur d’Alene is to head west on Interstate 90 and then north on Argonne Road to Day Mount Spokane Road. You can turn either right or left - it makes a loop - and follow farm signs.