In the 1980s Bill Bartlett, who had grown up on a nearby dairy farm, and wanting to provide a farm environment for his young children and wife, Heidi, bought a blueberry farm in Newport, New Hampshire. In the beginning Heidi and Bill pruned and cultivated the original three acre blueberry patch. As the years passed the Bartletts put two more acres into cultivation and added new varieties of blueberries. In 2001 their efforts bore fruit, so to speak, when their farm was named by New Hampshire’s Department of Agriculture, Markets, and Food as a “Farm of Distinction.”

Today, the farm is in transition. Bill and Heidi continue to live in the farmhouse, but the land is under the stewardship of Mike Snow (seen here with a blueberry picker) in a lease -purchase agreement. Their friendship and working relationship goes back over five years. After graduating from Essex (MA) Agricultural and Technical Institute with a specialty of pomology (the science of fruit growing), Mike visited the Bartlett Farm to pick blueberries and re-introduce himself to Bill whom he had met at a giant pumpkin judging contest the year before. While picking, Mike noticed a small amount of insect scale on a bush and brought it to Bill’s attention, commenting that it could get worse if not cared for. A friendship built on their respect for healthy bushes developed and Mike worked with Bill for five years when a deal was struck for Mike to take over the farm.

Today, ten different varieties and 5,000 high bush blueberry plants flourish on the five acres. Almost weekly, a new blueberry type ripens for the picking, so the farm welcomes visitors from mid -July and well into September. One of his prize new berries is the “Chandler” variety which renown University of New Hampshire Extension fruit specialist Bill Lord was involved in developing. The berry is very large and “will cover a quarter,” says Mike. “It’s mostly a marketing thing; people love big berries. The best and most flavorful berries “he continues,” come from pruning.” He begins pruning at the same time the sugar maples are gathering their sap.

Mike, a General Electric aircraft engine tool maker by night, has moved his blueberry business during the day into areas other than just blueberry picking. On sale at the site is a low sugar (to bring out the blueberry flavor) blueberry preserves and a syrup. His chef guru, Audrey Saxton, a Culinary Institute of America graduate and teacher at First Course culinary school in Keene New Hampshire is now working on a blueberry barbecue sauce for fish and pork.

And being the imaginative and generous soul that he is, Mike has established a “sin bin.” Pickers who have eaten blueberries while picking, which is everyone, are asked to put a donation into the sin bin. At the end of the season, Mike and his college student helpers decide to what non-profit organization the sin big collection should go. Over $600 in 2008 went to the Ausbon-Sargent Land Preservation Trust. Clear, among blueberry pickers, there’s no shortage of sin.

Bartlett’s Blueberry Farm
Mike Snow
648 Bradford Rd.
Newport, NH 03773
603-863-2583
www.bartlettsblueberryfarm.com
Points of sale: The farm
Picking season: mid-July-September, Wed-Sun. 8-5
weather dependent