It was a good summer – dry, but good. My blueberries survived the drought but it took its toll on the trees, flowers, and vegetables, along with my personal hygiene. Water became rationed with stingy prudence when, during a shower, it seemed my well threatened to run dry as the pressure dropped from its usual…
Enjoying the first batch of our beautiful blue fruit
I look at my field and can’t believe I have plants that are, if not laden with blueberries, certainly sprinkled with them. Last April when my brother Greg and I were crawling his truck 16 hours back home from the plant nursery in Michigan, the trailer tires bulging under 6000 pounds of young plant stock,…
Returning to the farm from travelling
I arrived home from travelling for multiple months in Israel and spent the next two weeks in culture shock. Driving on roads felt restrictive, walls hemmed me in, even the regime of regular showering seemed wasteful and redundant. It was wonderful and exciting to see family and friends but I also missed writing blogs and…
Many hands make light work (especially when a rib is broken)
I thought I would be done for the season by now, either due to weather or injury. But the water is still running, the ground not yet frozen, and with care I can use my arm again. A few weeks ago, my rib blew. It was caused by too much exertion and it was my own fault.…
Time to plant 500 blueberry plants!
I feel like I have been catapulted out of a time machine a couple of months into the future. I lifted my head, and somehow, it is now June. My romantic notion of planting blueberries surrounded by sunshine and butterflies has been buried beneath thousands of pounds of peat moss. The reality was wheelbarrows, back…
Shovels hit dirt for our grand blueberry adventure
I started digging my holes with my little tractor and it took me 3 hours to go 20 feet (on account of my skill level). At that rate I wouldn’t be finished before November. So, I hired an excavator. After he had finished, my field was a landscape of high mountains merging into deep trenches.…
Researching soil needs for blueberries
In 1992, Cornell University published a book about high-bush blueberry production. The 200-page award-winning* tome gathers advice from nearly 30 experts, and has effectively become my bible. One night while reading scripture, my eyes stumbled across a sentence that went something like this: ‘Weed control the preceding planting year is essential.’ Essential, it said. I…
A dream is born
Life is taking an exciting new turn. I am opening a u-pick blueberry farm. I know it sounds zany seeing as before last year, I had never successfully managed to grow anything in my life. Well, (she says confidently) things change! The past two months I have been doing extensive online research; I have visited…
Balderson Blueberries 