Your source for fruit and vegetable news

By Bobbie Whitehead

Virginia farmers continue to show an interest in growing blueberries with a new blueberry operation opening this month in Western Tidewater.

College Run Farms in Surry County has opened its two acres of blueberry to customers this month.

Jordan and Steve Berryman, who own and operate the farm, say they planted early blueberry varieties to be ready when their strawberry season ended.

“They’re just young plants, and they haven’t reached their full potential in production yet,” said Steve Berryman.

“It’s probably five years before we get full production from them.”

But he adds that this is the plants’ second year in the field.   The Berrymans have five varieties with two varieties being early ones that will be available in June, said Steve Berryman.

“We’ll be picking some more in June, and I hope to last until the second week of July,” he said. “I think it’s going to work out well.”

The state’s blueberry acreage continues to grow with the last agriculture census in 2002 showing 223 acres of blueberries in the state, up from 205 in 1997, according to the Virginia Agriculture Statistics Service, a U.S. Department of Agriculture agency.

In the Western Tidewater region, customers now have at least two farms that operated pick-your-own acreage dedicated to blueberries, and the blueberry season is now open with early varieties ready for picking.

Drewry Farms in Wakefield, which has operated a blueberry field for the past 23 years, will have blueberries ready by the first of July.

“We have eight or nine varieties,” said Lenore Drewry, who operates the blueberry field with her husband.

Most blueberry fields that customers visit nowadays are the high bush blueberries, which grow tall, according to Drewry. In the Midwest, she said, growers still have the low bush varieties where harvesting machines pick the berries.

The Drewrys use an honor system, having a shop set up with pint containers that are free. A flat cardboard box that holds 12 pints is available for $1. Customers can place their money or checks in envelopes to slide in a drop box.

“We have customers come from as far away as Washington, D.C., Chesterfield, and Norfolk,” Drewry said. “It’s fun taking care of the blueberries, but it’s a very long season.”

In Virginia, the majority of the blueberry acreage is in the western part of the state, but in the eastern part, Virginia Beach stands out with 11 acres of blueberries, according to Kevin Harding, USDA agricultural statistician.

Harding said they don’t have acreage data available for all of the counties.

Ninety percent of blueberries sold on retail shelves across the country come from Michigan, New Jersey, Oregon, North Carolina, Georgia, and Washington State, according to the U.S. Highbush Blueberry Council, a national organization for blueberry growers.

Various Virginia growers’ associations provide marketing materials to its members, and the U.S. Highbush Blueberry Council, also provides marketing materials to its members, according to Mark Villata, the council’s executive director.

“Our organization is pretty much for all blueberry growers of the high bush varieties,” Villata said.

Growers who produce less than 2,000 pounds of blueberries a season are exempt from dues, he said.

Right now, the U.S. Highbush Blueberry Council is supporting health-related projects since the health benefits of blueberries are what is driving their consumption, Villata said.

“A lot of good things are being found out about blueberries,” Villata said. “We’re particularly focusing on age-related diseases. There’s evidence in animal studies that blueberries improve brain function, coordination, and these types of issues you face when you become older.”

“In a study at the USDA Human Nutrition Research Center in Boston, a diet rich in blueberries reversed some loss of balance and coordination and improved short-term memory in aging rats,” according to the U.S. Highbush Blueberry Council.

Researchers say blueberries are a good source of Vitamin C and fiber.