History
The Blueberry plants here on the farm were planted in 1964 by the late David Trehane.
His first Blueberries were planted in 1951 in his garden, 80 plants which came from Lulu Island in British Columbia. They were offered free of charge to any grower who was prepared to trial them to see how ‘High bush’ Blueberries would perform in this country.
They didn’t just grow but thrived in our sandy, acidic Dorset heathland soil, so in 1957 David took the plunge and planted a whole acre, about 1000 plants just around the corner. The fact that David was the only UK grower to see the potential and then to plant Blueberries commercially is a tribute to his great talent as a horticultural innovator and pioneer. He then planted up our larger field in 1964 and in the meantime had also set up the Camellia nursery (our neighbours) in the 1950’s.
David then moved back to his homeland of Cornwall in 1969 & the Blueberry and Camellia businesses grew and flourished under different managements in the form of his son Jeremy (pictured below), daughter Jennifer and her son David Jnr.
Then in 2015 the responsibility for looking after the Blueberry field was entrusted to Josh Benson who in 2018 teamed up with his brother Dan to help push the business forward.
The land is now owned by the brothers and their company Brothers Farm Ltd run and manage the farm.
So! How do we grow them?
Soil Type
We are on a sandy acidic loam which Blueberry plants are said to prefer and looking at the age of our plants we would agree with this!
Lots of people visit us and talk about their experience of growing blueberries and whilst we are experts at looking after our own, getting plants to establish themselves is certainly not easy - for instance even on our soil, two new rows of a new variety we have planted are still struggling to establish 3 years on!
- The main point here is to keep trying!
Organic Status
The plantation has always been farmed organically and no pesticide or herbicide has ever been in our field.
In 2019 we applied for our Soil Association status and now wear the badge proudly - We have experimented recently with some Organic fertiliser to boost the immune systems of our ageing plants which we think is starting to have a good effect.
Pruning
So many people ask about how to prune their blueberry plants - It is an art hard earned that only Josh can comment on in all honesty seeing he has done it over 10,000 times now since 2015!
He carries out this monster task in the dormant season in rain, ice, wind or shine and given the age of our plants inevitably has to treat each plant differently...
One day hopefully he'll have some time to write a book on it!
2238
Plants
8
Varieties
59
Years old & counting!
Blueberry Superfood Facts!
Did you know:
- Blueberries have superfood status due to their antioxidant powers and ability to help keep the body healthy in so many different ways. They also contain Vitamin C, manganese and dietary fibre too.
- Antioxidants help neutralise harmful by-products of metabolism by fighting 'free radicals' that can lead to cancer and some age related diseases.
- Eat them fresh in the summer or lock in the goodness by freezing them at home and eating them through the year... Our kiuds eat them straight out of the freezer like sweets! (Win, win we reckon!!)
Our Varieties:
Seeing as our varieties are fairly old you won't find some of these around any more... Not because they aren't fantastic but that new varieties are bred to be high yielding and not so much for taste so we may be bias but ours are seriously fine flavoursome Bluebs.... Come and try then for yourself!
Sharper to Sweeter as you go down - however you'll only know if you come and pick some :)
IVANHOE
- The beast. Packs a punch this fella - Fantastic for baking as its sharpness cuts through whatever it is combined with.
HERBERT
- Sometimes called the champagne of Blueberries.... The Trehanes once sold these to Harrods back in the day!
BLUERAY
- A jammier flavour, long on the palette and a fantastic all rounder, JB's favourite.
BLUECROP
- A variety still grown for it's consistency, sweetness and mid-range flavour.
EARLIBLUE
- A sweet but earthy flavour, DB likes these best straight from the freezer...
COLLINS
- An awkward plant this one, its very droopy in habit so hard to look after but some people are fixated with it's sweetness.
BERKELEY
- One of our sweetest Bluebs, a firm favourite in may households
COVILLE
- A later variety that is often small but sweet, we haven't got many of these plants left so its a taste to savour!
AURORA
- Our first new variety planted in 2020, its taking its time to establish itself so this one is a TBC....!
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And sometimes even the telly comes down for a look! ;)
