Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, September 24, 1994 TAG: 9409260023
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: KRISTEN KAMMERER CORRESPONDENT
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Newport's Nancy Thorn does, and, if you ask, she'll share them with you. Or rather, she'll sell them to you for $1 a pound.
Sound like strange psychology? It's not at all, because Thorn isn't selling melancholy - just delicious, homegrown blueberries.
For seven years, Thorn has maintained a pick-your-own blueberry patch on her 200-acre Windrush Farm. The patch, nearly 1,000 bushes strong, is noteworthy not only for its ample, organically grown fruit but also for its scenic mountain setting.
As you drive up the road to Windrush, your eyes are immediately drawn to the blueberry patch. Hundreds of bushes, some 5 feet tall, stand in neat rows on a gently sloping hillside. A wooden fence surrounds the patch.
As you approach the gate, Thorn comes out of her house to greet you, her two dogs bounding in delirious circles around her. After introducing herself, she hands you a tall white bucket and leads you up the hill.
It's a different world up there. As you walk among the bushes, clouds of clicking grasshoppers twirl around your feet. The air smells sugary. And everywhere, mountains loom.
Up close, the blueberry bushes look almost fake.
Each one is loaded with clusters of dark, plump berries, as if someone has patiently decorated the branches by hand.
Speaking of hands, it's hard to keep yours off the bushes. Once you've reached out, picked a berry and popped it into your mouth - you're hooked.
Many of Thorn's visitors are, not surprisingly, repeat customers.
"We came here last year and picked 19 pounds," said Fannie Criner of Blacksburg. "Our daughter and grandson ate most of them, though," added Jimmy Criner, her husband.
Their friends, Paul and Wanda Slusser, are equally dedicated. "I put them in the freezer to give to the kids," Wanda Slusser said. "I may also make some jam.''
Blueberries are famous for their culinary versatility. They can be served as table fruit, added to cereal, put into baked goods, and made into jellies, sauces, syrups and preserves. They also freeze well, becoming hard, "like M&M's" so it's easy to grab a handful for breakfast or dessert, Thorn said.
And, as it turns out, there are as many ways to pick blueberries as there are to prepare them. Some people like to select each berry carefully, choosing only the best. Others prefer to grab handfuls indiscriminately. The mark of the "repeat pickers" is that they hook the bucket onto their belts, allowing them to use both hands at once. Some ingenious visitors even alter their buckets, attaching large tubes, to facilitate the picking process.
Even without a particular method, though, it's easy for people of all ages to pick their own blueberries. You don't have to worry about your back aching or your knees getting dirty, either. That's because Thorn's berries are a variety known as rabbiteye. This variety is a type of highbush blueberry whose plants are more like trees than the low-lying scrub people usually think of.
"I like picking berries here because you don't have to stoop like you had to with the old-timey huckleberries," Fannie Criner said.
Another unique aspect of Windrush Farm is that, after picking, you can retire to a picnic table to rest and count your blueberries. "I want people who come here to have a good time," Thorn said. "They should bring a picnic and stay for lunch if they'd like to."
Thorn got hooked on blueberries, and farming in general, when her first love, dancing, didn't prove as fulfilling as she had hoped. Born in St. Louis, Mo., she graduated from high school and then moved to New York City to dance professionally. It was there that she met her husband, George, who worked in theater administration.
After a few years, the Thorns became disillusioned with Broadway and moved to Tennessee where they bought a small farm. It was then that Thorn tried her hand at growing things.
"I became very interested in finding ways to produce good, healthy food that everyone could afford," she said. Her goal led her to the practice of organic farming in which no pesticides or herbicides are used. "It's more work to grow foods without pesticides," she said, "but it's what people are asking for these days, and it's much healthier."
Keeping the blueberry patch healthy and fruitful requires constant surveillance and hard work. Thorn spends several hours a day picking berries. She sells some of them at Annie Kay's in downtown Blacksburg. She uses others for her own recipes and preserves. And some she just eats on the spot.
''I can't help it!" she said, laughing. "I eat one pint, minimum."
Besides picking excess berries, Thorn also plants new bushes to replace sick ones, applies (organic) fertilizer, monitors the irrigation system, mulches around each plant, mows the grass between rows, prunes the bushes so they don't grow too tall, and keeps an eye out for pests.
The work, however, is worth the effort. Thorn estimates that her bushes produce between three and four thousand pounds of fruit per season.
The blueberry season began in July and will last until the first frost, which Thorn predicts is still a couple of weeks away. This year's crop, she said, is a very good one. And there are plenty of berries for the picking.
Windrush Farm is open seven days a week, but, before visiting, Thorn recommends that people call ahead for directions. The number is 544-7440.
by CNB