Why Blueberries?

As we have settled back in to live here in the USA we have slowly returned to our "Euell Gibbons" leanings having a small garden in Louisville and trying to be energy conscious and planting indigenous plants. Each year we would pick our own blueberries on other peoples' farms and freeze them for the year. Blueberries are great to eat, make delicious pop-in-your-mouth frozen treats and are good for you! Realizing that we would stay in the region after retirement we looked for a place to live out one of our livelong dreams . . . . have our own acreage and do some farming. We found a beautiful spot in Shelbyville and started dreaming some more. Yes, there is plenty of work to do but we find that evenings and weekends along with some time off in Spring and Summer gives us enough to keep up, mostly. Our land hadn't had anyone farming it for many years and the high acid soil areas had only been used for a low quality hay. Our thoughts went towards an opportunity to grow our blueberries organically. Weeds have almost done us in but we are slowly catching on and we have been sucessful at keeping any chemicals our other non-organic inputs out of the blueberries! We hope to get "organic" ceritfication in the future but for now we are just pulling weeds, mulching, and using OMRI certified fertilizers.

What makes Blueberries so GREAT?

Blueberries are among the top sources of antioxidants which slows cell damage that can lead to cancer. Recent studies suggest that eating blueberries can reduce memory decline. Blueberries are rich in anthocyanins and it is thought that anthocyanins may help prevent heart attacks and slow macular degeneration. Vitamin C comes in big bunches in blueberries and with a half-cup serving having only 40 calories blueberries are a nutritious and great tasting snack!