A bounty of blues

By John Howell
Posted 7/19/16

This could be the year the 13-ton record is broken. It's started out that way, says Joe Gouveia, who with Rhonda Shumaker run the Rocky Point Blueberry Farm. Since opening July 8, pickers have bucketed 1.7 tons of the juicy

This item is available in full to subscribers.

Please log in to continue

E-mail
Password
Log in

A bounty of blues

Posted

This could be the year the 13-ton record is broken.

It’s started out that way, says Joe Gouveia, who with Rhonda Shumaker run the Rocky Point Blueberry Farm. Since opening July 8, pickers have bucketed 1.7 tons of the juicy fruit.

Gouveia and Shumaker bought the 8.5-acre farm five years ago from Mark and Betty Garrison, who started it after unsuccessfully trying to farm Christmas trees. The Garrisons were especially concerned about preserving the farm’s open space and worked out an agreement for the sale of development rights to the Department of Environmental Management and the farm to Gouveia and Shumaker.

Gouveia said the farm’s harvest seems to follow a cycle and this year is shaping up to be one of the best. He can’t attribute the bounty to a single thing. Could a cooler spring and early summer be the answer? He can’t say.

The abundance of berries makes for easy picking. And there have been no shortage of pickers. A visit Thursday morning found Rocky Point Avenue lined with parked cars and Shuman busy weighing clear plastic bags filled with the plumb berries showing digital readouts of three and four pounds – not bad for hardly an hour of picking under the green netting that keeps birds from pecking the bushes clean.

There are no age restrictions to the pickers either. Some parents brought along toddlers while older siblings did the actual work. Sampling can’t be helped, but then that’s part of the fun.

On Thursday, a van from Cornerstone Adult Services in Apponaug pulled up. Some had walkers, but that didn’t deter the lure of fresh blueberries and the prospect of muffins when they returned to the center.

Rachel Huguenin was a member of the group. She clutched a plastic bucket and reached into a bush to pull off a dark blue berry from its greener cousins that hadn’t ripened. “A very berry,” she said. Rachel loves rhythms and offered a few more on other topics. One of her companions, Ron Lemme, didn’t pause his picking.

Had Rachel sampled the crop?

Well, no, it was learned. It took this Beacon reporter to find a giant berry and ask Rachel to open her mouth.

“Should I?”

She closed her eyes and opened her mouth.

A smile lit her face. It wasn’t exactly forbidden fruit, but that taste renewed her energy to harvest.

The farm on Warwick Neck is open from 7 a.m. to noon seven days a week and from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. on Thursdays.

THERE’S GOING TO BE LOTS OF PIES:

The Beyer family from Cranston pauses in the shade before heading home with the intention of making blueberry pies.

BERRIES BY THE POUND:

Rhonda Shumaker weighs berries before cashing out customers at the farm’s stand on Rocky Point Avenue.

EYE ON A BERRY:

Ron Lemme picks while Rachel Huguenin looks on. Both are clients at the Cornerstone Adult Services in Apponaug.

Comments

No comments on this item Please log in to comment by clicking here