By STEVEN JUPITER
BRANDON—Everyone has a favorite way to enjoy fresh summer blueberries: pies, pancakes, muffins, jams, jellies, or just by the handful. The flavor is one of the most beloved hallmarks of a Vermont summer. And picking the berries yourself is one of the most beloved activities of the season in Vermont as well.
And now there’s a new arrival on Brandon’s blueberry scene: Mother’s Meadow pick-your-own blueberry farm on McConnell Road. It’s four acres of some of the sweetest, plumpest, juiciest blueberries around.
These are not the tiny fruits of wild bushes. Instead, these are the roly-poly fatboys of specially cultivated varieties, expressly chosen by proprietor Kitt Plummer, who’s made a career of fruit farming and who first planted these bushes in 2022 and had to let them mature until this summer to offer the public a chance to come pick.
“I chose these bushes for both size and flavor,” said Plummer at his “plantation,” as he calls it.
Plummer worked on a similar plantation in Londonderry, New Hampshire, in addition to the work he put in at an apple orchard there. He’s no backyard amateur. After he purchased the acreage on McConnell Road, he took the time to prepare the soil specifically for blueberries.
“Blueberries like acidic, well-drained soil,” he said. The property had been a hay field and required some remediation.
“I had to get the pH levels right before I even put any of the bushes in the ground,” he added
The 4,200 plants are arranged in neat rows, their roots protected by mulch and served by a computer-run, solar-powered, well-based irrigation system that delivers water to them only when the soil monitors indicate that moisture levels have dropped off. Plummer has worked with agriculture specialists from UVM to get the conditions just right and to develop flower gardens to attract the pollinators that are necessary to sustainable fruit production.
Though not an organic farm, Plummer is careful about the compounds he uses.
“My own grandkids eat right off the bushes,” he said. “You just have to use your head and do the research.”
The results speak for themselves. Plummer is getting 10,000 pounds of fruit per acre. The berries are fat and flavorful and taste like summer. And this past weekend, people showed up to get their fix. They filled the buckets that Plummer provided and then brought their haul to be weighed.
Plummer is charging $5.49/lb., with a 10% discount for more than 10 pounds.
“A lot of people who’ve been watching me get everything ready for the last four years have stopped by,” said Plummer. “They’ve been excited to finally get to pick these berries they’ve been watching grow.”
Plummer isn’t just offering his berries to DIY pickers; he’s also working with other local outlets to get his delectable fruit out to the public, so keep a lookout for the Mother’s Meadow logo around the area.
The farm is open Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday. Picking buckets are provided and the berries are placed in cardboard trays for the trip home.
Plummer has years invested in this plantation and will have to wait several years more to recoup the investment, but it’s clear that he enjoys what he does and wants to provide the best quality product he can.
Visit pickyourownberries.com to find out more about Mother’s Meadow.
