Pick your own blueberry farm
The Blueberry BoG
history
J. Foxcroft Carleton imported blueberry bushes (1926) from New Jersey to his property on Route 6A in East Sandwich. These were the first [cultivated] bushes in all of New England (per his nephew, Jack Jillson - Sandwich Broadsider, 8/12/93).
In the 1950’s, Niilo and Ella Ahonen sold their cranberry bog on Spring Hill Road to two Finnish friends, Victor Leeman and William Wirtanen. These men planted the bog with highbush blueberries (cranberries and blueberries are in the same genus, Vaccinium). The bushes were the original cultivars from Mr. Carleton's property.
Sally Winings and Steve Touloumtzis purchased the property at 92 Spring Hill Road in 1984 and named it The Blueberry Bog. They will happily point out original bushes from the 1920’s, still productive nearly 100 years later!
Blueberries (Vaccinium corymbosum) are native to North America. They are notably high in antioxidants, amongst the highest, perhaps at the apex, of all fruits. "The main antioxidant compounds in blueberries are in a group of polyphenols [sic] antioxidants called flavonoids. One group of flavonoids in particular — anthocyanins — is thought to be responsible for much of the beneficial health effects." (healthline, J. Leech,10/9/18)
They were not cultivated of variety until the early work of Elizabeth Coleman White and Frederick V. Coville in the New Jersey pine barrens, circa 1906.
Blueberries
Cultivation & maintenance
We strive for organic cultivation through good pruning [February], control of Phomopsis vaccinii (twig blight) via copper-based fungicide [April], and control of winter moth via Spinosad (organic insecticide) [pink bud stage, then early bloom]. Weeding is . . . ongoing. We attempt to keep the field free of non-blueberry growth (our term for anything non-blueberry growing in or by the bushes is ‘aliens’) by managing our big five: green briar, poison ivy, wild black cherry, Virginia creeper, and perhaps the worst of all, Triffids. [N.B. Triffids, mobile, carnivorous, and reaching up to 7-feet in height, are best described by the reports (1951) of noted exo-biologist John Wyndham.]
Hours of operation
Hours: 8:30am – 3:30pm Closed on Tuesdays
Please respect our 'no dogs' policy. Thanks!
Call 413-727-2697 to check for updates. Or check for updates on this website.
Other means of contact are (in rank order, high to low): telepathy; updates from your local telegraph office;
tele-ericaceaeolfactorolocation (long-distance locating of Ericaceae family of fruits by olfactory sense
(lessons available)); word of mouth; driving by our sign