You can see it in your mind’s eye.
Sun-drenched fields, Robins and Cardinals strumming their hypnotic notes, the bushes heaving with plump, ripe blueberries.
Sounds like a childhood fantasy, but it isn’t.
It’s Blueberry Hill Nursery—15 rolling, sloping acres of blueberry delight on a 100-acre farm owned by Jim and Susie Beha of Flat Top.
And for a growing number of local berry enthusiasts, Blueberry Hill Nursery is the first step toward hot blueberry pies, puffy sugar-crusted muffins, pots of jam lined up on root-cellar shelves, and bowl after bowl of delectable blueberries dressed simply in thick, vanilla ice cream.
Tranquil and idyllic, the Beha’s blueberry fields lure berry lovers to an indulgent day of gathering and eating and some lighthearted “my-pail-is-fuller-than-yours” competition.
At this pick-your-own style farm, the summer warm blueberries promise, as Henry David Thoreau noted in 1846, “a grateful repast” for the soul as well as for the appetite.
They’re great for munching too, and the Blueberry Hill farm family encourages their guests to sample the plump, dark and juicy products while filling their buckets and baskets with the lush summer fruit.
“Some people are a little embarrassed about eating the berries while picking them in the field,” Jim says with a laugh. “They’re self-conscious about sampling the products they’re purchasing by the pound, feeling a bit like they’re stealing.
“Actually, we prefer that every now and then, pickers would taste one of the kinds they’re picking, just so they’ll know the quality and flavor of the berries they’re putting in their pails.”
He adds, “If they taste it first, they’ll know what they like and what to pick.”
Blueberries are just about perfect, according to the Behas, who are quick to point out the sweet, edible fruit is not only delicious but also good for you as well: blueberries contain anthocyanins (the pigments that make them blue), which are responsible for their antioxidant potency—a half cup of blueberries packs as much antioxidant power as five servings of peas, carrots, apples, squash, or broccoli.
“Their sweet flavor transforms pies, pancakes and cobblers,” says wife Susie, who turns out severaltasty treats from her oven, including blueberry crisp, blueberry delight, and blueberry cheesecake.
“They make superb muffins too.”
Brushed with a hint of silver frosting, the dark, jewel-like berries have a luscious, sweet flavor unmarred by seeds.
Ripening in clusters on user-friendly bushes with no thorns or brambles to snare eager pickers, blueberries all but tumble into harvest pails—deliciously juicy and quintessentially American.
Native to this continent, blueberries were a staple food of the American Indian long before the first settlers arrived here from Europe.
The Behas started with just three plants in 1987. Then they planted 300 to see how they would do. They did well.
Now the Behas have more than 9,000 of the blueberry bushes growing on their farm just off the Egeria Road on U.S. Route 19.
It was while picking blueberries in Ohio one summer afternoon in the early 1980s that Jim, a Parkersburg native, decided he’d like to try his luck with a blueberry project.
“I only saw the picking part at the time,” recalls Jim, a former mine safety and health specialist with the U.S. Department of Labor, Mine, Safety and Health Administration. “I had no idea of the work that went into it.”
As a crop, blueberries are tolerant of a wide range of soils, making them suitable for growing in the Flat Top area, a region rich in farming tradition.
The attractive blueberry bushes, which may reach a height of about eight feet, have green leaves and bear white or pink flowers. The bushes will yield six to eight quarts per bush in their prime.
Jim says that many people are under the impression that blueberries are pollinated by honeybees.
He explains, however, that because of the tightness of the blueberry bloom, it’s the bumblebee that’s most efficient in spreading the pollen for the plants.
“I’ve observed literally thousands of bumblebees on the bushes in early spring,” the grower says. “I’m told that, in some instances, the honeybees are not strong enough, until the bumblebees do their work, to get in and pollinate the blooms on the blueberries.
“When the blooms were on last spring, there were as many as four bumblebees per plant.”
Luckily, these same blueberry blooms are all but impervious to frost, being able to withstand temperatures in the 25-degree F. range while in full bloom. “That’s a real asset,” the owner says.
Even so, the Behas aren’t entertaining any illusions about the hard work and enormous risks involved in producing a mammoth crop of blueberries.
“The labor part of growing blueberries is simple,”says Jim. “You keep the weeds out. You keep the bushes pruned.
“You make a mistake or two, and if you’re lucky, it won’t wipe you out.”
Blueberries are fairly maintenance free once the plants take hold and begin to thrive. There aren’t many pests that bother them. Birds, however, can be a problem once the berries ripen.
“We have a lot of feathered friends,” Jim says, smiling. “Robins will eat until they can’t fly. Who cares if they eat a berry, but they won’t just do that? They’ll ruin a dozen more.”
The Blueberry Hill farm has a spacious sales-shack shelter that offers customers a chance to rest in the shade and visit with other pickers.
The farm is open for business on Tuesdays and Wednesdays from 8 a.m to 2 p.m. On Thursdays 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. and Saturdays from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.
The farm is closed on Sundays, Mondays and Fridays.
Pickers, meantime, may bring their own buckets to the farm or borrow containers at the shelter, where the blueberries are put into plastic bags for the trip home.
“Most people find it handy to use a one- or two-gallon bucket,” the owner says. “We’re charging $2.50 a pound. A gallon (according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture standards) weighs about six pounds.”
During business hours the Behas can be reached at304-787-3930. During nonbusiness hours, a recording listing picking hours and giving directions to the farm is available at the same number.
The Behas are concise in discussing their plans.
“We’d like to keep this place clean, neat, and attractive so that people will feel comfortable coming out to the country and having an enjoyable experience,” says Jim. “We want to do that while offering a delicious product at a reasonable price.”
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Top o’ the morning!
(Editor’s note: Chances are you’ve never tasted a completely ripe blueberry. Well, now you can. A blueberry bonanza in Southern West Virginia attracts pickers by the score, including those who collect pail-after-pail of the luscious fruit for Mom’s cobblers and muffins.
At Blueberry Hill near Flat Top, Jim and Susie Beha offer a mouth-watering product that brings customers back year after year. The blueberry farm is open to pickers, such as Rebecca Lynn Blankenship of Daniels (in photo). Rebecca is renown for her blueberry cobblers and other homemade desserts.