Farming Highbush Blueberry Varieties
Reading Time: 9 minutes
Growing highbush blueberry varieties is a thriving business in North America. Learn about Pacific Northwest blueberries and the farm businesses that produce them.
by Heather Smith Thomas
Blueberries are native to North America, and for many years, their purple juice was used as a natural food dye. Most people who used blueberries simply gathered wild berries, which were mainly lowbush types. Blueberries were first cultivated as a crop for sale in 1916, using highbush varieties; commercial farming is a fairly recent practice.
Highbush blueberries (Vaccinium corymbosum) require annual pruning to improve crop yield and promote new cane growth; proper pruning increases fruit quality and quantity. Production in the U.S. has grown tremendously over the last 25 years because blueberries are now considered a superfood and are a good source of vitamin C, potassium, iron, phosphorus, fiber, and antioxidants.
Blueberry Farming in Oregon
Kathy and Ken Dopps have a small farm near Hermiston, Oregon, with 20 acres of Duke blueberries (V. corymbosum). “This is a highbush berry that is cold-hardy and flourishes in this area and climate,” Kathy said.
She and Ken planted their first patch of blueberries in 2006. It takes about 3 years before the bushes produce a crop. They started with a couple acres and kept adding more. “We have two sons, Kenneth and Kevin, who live in Hermiston and help us during blueberry season. Our oldest son is married and has 4 kids. Sophia, the 9-year-old, helps me in the blueberry shed, washing buckets and talking to the customers.”
It’s great for children to get a chance to grow up with farm experience. “They know that blueberries don’t just come from the store, and they learn a good work ethic. They understand that things need to be taken care of,” Kathy said.
The farm has 4 acres of U-pick and the rest is commercially picked. It takes a lot of work to harvest blueberries off 20 acres. “We hire hand labor and the timing can be challenging because there are other blueberry farms in our area, and harvest needs to be done at the proper time.”
The berries are ready by mid-June. The U-pick part of the farm is open through mid-July. “We generally start commercial picking first. My U-pick schedule is dictated by the fact that I’m a schoolteacher, so I start it shortly after school is out. We pick for about a month and then it closes, and I have a chance for a little downtime in August before school starts again,” Kathy said.
“It’s gratifying to see the same people return year after year; we’re part of their family tradition and we get to see their kids grow up. Once people discover us, they tend to come back every year.”
The berry bushes are watered with drip irrigation, utilizing water from Hermiston Irrigation District. The drip lines go beneath the plants, with the water going directly into the soil. Ground between the rows is covered by a weed mat so there is minimal spraying needed.
Birds are the main problem. “Over the years, we’ve tried many approaches to keep the birds out, and finally discovered a solution. It’s a device that emits sounds of birds in distress. When birds hear it, they’re afraid to approach because it sounds like hawks attacking other birds. People hear those sounds and ask me where all those birds are kept! I explain that it’s just recorded sounds on a loop (periodically repeated) so opportunistic birds like starlings and robins stay away,” Kathy said.
“We also have a nesting pair of hawks that return every year to trees that border our property. We encourage them to stick around; they help keep the other birds away.”
She hires local high school students and friends in the summer to work in the blueberry shed — to help customers and show them rows that haven’t been picked. “We help them learn how to pick quickly and efficiently and fill their buckets — and have a good time,” Kathy said.
“We open at 6:30 in the morning. A lot of older people like to come when it’s cool and quieter. We stay open until noon, then open again in the evenings so people can come after work. Saturdays we are open all day, but Sundays are shorter hours, 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. We try to create a pleasant place so people want to return to every year,” she said.
She has an old blue Chevrolet farm truck that she drives in parades and parks by the blueberry field. “People can take pictures of it with the field in the background, to make memories with their families and kids with the blueberry truck.”
A few years ago, she started sending some of her blueberries to a processor near Portland. “I created a line of products made with blueberries, including a vinaigrette syrup, pepper jelly and some regular jams and jellies, scone mix, etc. I didn’t have time to do all this myself, but I found a gentleman in Portland who can create these wonderful products for me, made with minimal ingredients. I keep it simple and feature blueberries the most prominently. Many of the products are made without white sugar, and are as health-minded as possible.”
Blueberry Farming in Idaho
The Urmann family grows blueberries near Laclede Idaho, halfway between Sandpoint and Priest River. This small family farm is run by Stan, his wife Anita, and daughter Whitney. “My wife is a retired school teacher and Whitney is an elementary teacher in the Priest River district,” Stan said.
He grew up on an apple farm in California during the 1960s and 70s and became a teacher. The family had property in Idaho, and Stan and his wife decide to move there in the early 1990s. “I was disenchanted with the educational process and too young to retire. Farming was my background, so we took a chance on blueberries. One of my high school buddies put in some blueberries in northern California in 1993. At that time, there were no blueberry farms in northern Idaho or eastern Washington,” he said.
“We were faced with skepticism from ag extension people at University of Idaho; they told us blueberries wouldn’t grow here. Back then, we didn’t have the internet; information had to be found the old-fashioned way — talking to people, calling people, or doing research in a library. I had done some research on blueberries and found that one of the biggest blueberry regions in the world is the Midwest and Minnesota and their temperatures can be very extreme — so I figured we could grow blueberries in Idaho.”
He and Anita decided to give it a try and started looking for a piece of land that would work for a blueberry farm. “The property we owned was in the mountains and not ideal. So we bought a 12-acre parcel just off the highway in Laclede, and, in 1994, put in almost 6000 plants,” Stan said.
The plants they bought were already 3 or 4 years old and starting to produce a little, but it took until 2005 to produce enough to make money. “We started from scratch with a bare piece of land. We put in a drip system because blueberries need a lot of water — but only a little at a time. They are very shallow-rooted, and drip irrigation gives every plant its own source, providing about a gallon of water per day. We have a good well, and use a lot of water.”
Their berries have never been sprayed. “We’re lucky because there aren’t a lot of other blueberries in the area, and not many pests or diseases. We use synthetic nitrogen as our fertilizer and a lot of mulch (grass and sawdust) which also adds nitrogen to the soil. We aren’t certified organic but have a very sustainable method of growing blueberries,” he said.
Birds are the biggest challenge but also helpful. “Between the wild turkeys, our neighbor’s ducks, chickens, turkeys, and all the pigeons, guinea hens, and birds in this area, after our harvest ends in early September, they clean up the remaining berries. We can never get all the berries picked and some fall on the ground. Birds clean those up, and keep our blueberries free of disease. If you don’t get rid of those old berries, you end up with diseases in the soil. The birds solve that problem and leave their droppings which makes a nice organic fertilizer,” Stan said.
“We also have deer and elk, and an occasional moose that passes through. Bears also come around in the fall for a while and eat any berries that are left. Many farms have fences to keep wildlife out, but I feel the wildlife need to eat also, and they are helping me! Other farms have different philosophies and I respect that, but we prefer to let wildlife have access. After 29 years, it seems to be working,” he said.
Starting the farm was a gamble but it paid off. “It’s a good business. Blueberries love the cold weather. If we get snow on the ground or it’s below zero, the plants are dormant and rest, and come back with a lot of vigor in the spring. When the ground dries up in late March, we go to work pruning, and do some weed and grass control,” he said.
By May, it gets really busy and harvest is in July and into August. “By the end of September, everything is finished and ready for winter. There’s always an end in sight!”
Their farm produces about 40,000 to 50,000 pounds of blueberries each year, all picked by local help. “We started out by hiring a lot of kids and families, and still do, but now we also have a local group of Filipino ladies who do a lot of our harvesting. They are very consistent workers. All our other summer help for picking, sorting, and packing is local kids. We’ve been doing it for so long that kids working for us now are children of some who worked for us in earlier years; it’s now the next generation!”
Anita recently retired from teaching and helps with the farmers markets and other tasks. Their daughter Whitney was a public relations major in college and now handles most of the advertising, branding their products, and more.
“We have an on-farm store that sells fresh-picked berries, our jams and syrups, baked pies, and a few other items. Our U-pick is about 15 to 20% of sales. At our farm, we use the honor system. People can do their own thing to pick berries; we have markers showing where they can go. They can take their buckets, follow the signs to go pick, then come back and weigh the berries, bag them and clean them up, and leave us the money in a box,” Stan said. People appreciate this old-school atmosphere of trust.
“Our field foreman, Pixie Kluver, is an important part of our field management during harvest. We usually start right after the 4th of July and are open every day — 7 days a week, through the daylight hours. If people are taking the time to drive out here, we want them to be able to pick or get berries. We’re in a good place, off the highway only half a mile, and about an hour from Spokane, Coeur d’Alene, and Post Falls. In the past 10 years, several more blueberry farms have started in this area.”
Blueberries are a popular food. “We got a big boost about 20 years ago when blueberries were recognized as a superfood. One of our battles in earlier years was convincing people to buy blueberries rather than huckleberries. This was an educational process; we had to convince people that they could enjoy both! Some of the old-timers in northern Idaho just wanted huckleberries!”
At first, the only time people could buy blueberries was during summer. “They’d come from Oregon, Washington, back east, or Canada to get our blueberries. Now you can get ‘fresh’ blueberries year-round; they are grown in southern California, Mexico, Chile, etc.” he said.
“We realized after we were growing a lot of berries, that we couldn’t sell them all here at the farm or at farmers markets. We integrated into some of the local stores, but it took a while to do that. Currently, our berries are sold in 19 stores in this area — Super One stores and Yoke’s. They carry our berries fresh during the season (5 or 6 weeks) and we quick-freeze about half our berries. Each of those stores has a chest freezer in their produce department where people can get our fresh-frozen blueberries,” he said.
“In northern Idaho, the Yoke’s stores are wonderful supporters of our local product. It’s better to buy a local fresh-frozen berry than some of the fresh berries you buy in winter. The fresh blueberries available probably came from South America. By the time you get them, it’s been 2 to 3 weeks since they were picked and they have shorter shelf life. You’re better off buying frozen berries that were frozen right after they were picked. They have more nutrients and antioxidants. Most folks don’t even thaw them — they just put them in cereal, smoothies, etc. My daughter eats them right out of the bag like candy!” This has been a great family business. “It was a great way to raise our daughter, and she’s still an important part of our business. Her boyfriend is currently working on the farm also, and does most of our deliveries and a lot of our work during the winter.”
Heather Smith Thomas ranches with her husband near Salmon, Idaho, raising cattle and a few horses. She has a B.A. in English and history. She has raised and trained horses for 50 years and has been writing freelance articles and books nearly that long, publishing 20 books and more than 9,000 articles for horse and livestock publications. Find Heather’s online blog here.
Originally published in the March/April 2024 issue of Countryside and Small Stock Journal and regularly vetted for accuracy.
