Fleeman’s U-Pick Farm

Fleeman’s U-Pick Blueberries was the result of a life-changing event; a four-lane modern highway was cut through the back side of our property.

Instead of watching from the kitchen window as cattle peacefully grazed, we were faced with the reality of hearing the almost constant sound of all sorts of vehicle traffic speed by, including honking horns, sirens, large truck airbrakes, etc.

Now to some people this might not seem so bad, but when one had grown up in a quiet, serene country life of rambling pastures and wooded areas where a young boy could take his favorite dog out bird hunting in the afternoons after school, the change was enormous.

During our many discussions about “just what to do with this piece of property where cattle could no longer graze,” the idea of a u-pick farm was conceived. Now we did not know much about blueberries and certainly had very little equipment for such a project. In fact, we started with just an old, old, old tractor, a hoe, a shovel, a wheelbarrow, and a dream.

Johnny would plow the land and move the dirt one way, then he would move it another, and then back again.

At last he laid off rows for planting and then we discovered that the work was just beginning. We could not afford to pay someone to install irrigation, so Johnny had to figure out how to do it himself.

We started with 500 bareroot plants which arrived in late November. Johnny dug all 500 holes with that shovel and planted each one.

The last ones were planted during a sleet storm in mid-December. A couple of years later, 500 more plants were added.

Over the years some plants have died or were dug up because they did not produce.

Today, the farm has roughly 800 rabbit eye blueberries in about 8 different varieties. In 2019, a small blackberry section was added.