| Escape from city noise at The Blueberry Patch |
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By: By ERIN EDGEMON, Business Editor
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Posted: Sunday, July 13, 2008 7:56 am
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Angie Kleinau’s blueberry farm lies parallel to Interstate 24 but the sounds of automobiles scurrying along the freeway seems to disappear when visitors enter the grounds.
“Even though you can hear the interstate, people don’t hear it,” she said. “They hear the birds chirping and the horses.”
The Blueberry Patch is a serene setting, in deed, that attracts hundreds of visitors each season to pick nearly nickel-sized berries. The seven-acre farm — located off West Gum Road in southern unincorporated Murfreesboro — contains more than 4,000 plants that were planted 25 years ago.
The farm opened for the season on July 5 and will likely remain open until the first of August.
“It is being in God’s creation,” Lisa Brown, a friend of Kleinau’s who has been bringing her children to pick berries for 21 years, said. “This must be what heaven is going to be like.”
“It is a family tradition,” she said as she takes a break from picking. “You just come out. It is like heaven on Earth.”
In fact, the proprietor doesn’t operate the farm for the money. She does it for the community. Rarely, in fact, does the farm support itself.
“It is the people,” Kleinau said. “It is the only reason I do it.”
“I pray each year” about whether to keep the farm operational, she said. “If the Lord wants me to do it, then I do it.”
But Kleinau, a retired psychology professor, who regularly adjunct teaches at area colleges, takes a hands-off approach when it comes to interacting with the visitors to her the pick your own blueberry patch. She likes to let her visitors decide how much interaction they would like to have.
Kleinau knows many of her guests come to get away from their fast-paced lives and are looking for some solitude.
Brown said “People get lost in their own world” out in the blueberry field.
Some are cancer patients looking to get out in nature and capture some of the berries health benefits. Parents often take their children to the farm to teach them how blueberries are grown.
“The people who come out here to pick are not normal people,” Kleinau said. “They are coming out here to get into nature and spend time with their family.
“They are thoughtful people,” she said.
But others just can’t get over the size and the taste of Kleinau’s berries.
Christy Lambright, who moved to Murfreesboro from Lansing, Mich. almost a year and a half ago, serves as the farm manager. She lives on the property and helps take care of the blueberry bushes and animals.
“I used to pick as a kid, and I don’t remember them being this big,” she said.
Visitors are given a bucket to collect their berries in and are asked if they have been to the farm before. If they request it, Kleinau or one of her many friends who helps her on the farm will instruct them on how to pick the berries.
“If they fall off by barely touching them, then they are ready,” she said. “If you have to pull them, they aren’t done. They aren’t sweet.”
The berries should be dark blue with a white powder on the outside. The white coating keeps the vitamins and nutrients inside the berry.
Because of this, berries shouldn’t be washed until they are going to be used, Kleinau said.
Blueberries are often considered super fruits meaning they are packed with healthy nutrients and antioxidants.
Kleinau’s late husband Dick started the farm about 25 years ago by planting rows of 3-year-old bushes. It took five years for the bushes to produce enough berries to open the farm to the public.
“He wanted the farm to pay for itself,” she said. “It did not work out that way.”
Kleinau’s husband, an entrepreneur who helped form Special Kids, a center that provides comprehensive healthcare to children with special needs, died after becoming ill almost 11 years ago.
“He loved it so much,” she said of the farm. “He loved the customers so much.”
Taking care of the farm is painstaking work. The bushes must be pruned regularly and weeds around the bushes are pulled by hand. The grounds haven’t been sprayed with pesticides for more than five years.
“It is very labor intensive,” Kleinau said.
But she said she will keep the farm going as long as people keep paying her a visit.
Erin Edgemon can be reached at 869-0812 and at eedgemon@murfreesboropost.com.
The Blueberry Patch is located at 5942 W. Gum Road
Hours of Operation: Tuesday, Thursday-Saturday 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.
893-7940
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