Harvesting Berries: No one leaves blue

Tucked in a small valley just east of Lake Success is a blueberry lover’s paradise.

Home to about 1,200 blueberry plants, Primarily Perennials by Denise — located on Success Valley Drive off Highway 190 — is one of the area’s best-kept secrets.

Husband and wife Denise and Rollie Fugate, owners of the patch, on May 18 began having you-pick days where people could — and still can — visit the farm and pick their own blueberries.

Denise Fugate said she anticipates blueberry season lasting about four more weeks, but it is all contingent upon the weather.

“The heat makes the fruit ripen faster,” she said Friday. “Once the berry starts getting ripe, it’s good if it cools off because the berry holds on the plant longer.”

Blueberry season can begin as early as April and as late as May, and it lasts about two months, Denise Fugate said. This year, cooler weather extended the season later in the year.

The Fugates’ patch is home to more than 20 varieties of blueberries “to please every one in town,” Cathy Proctor said.

Proctor, who visits the farm every Friday morning and picks six to nine pounds over a two-hour span, was quick to reply when asked why she likes blueberries so much.

“How can you not?” Proctor said. “We eat them like potato chips at home.”

Proctor, who freezes two pounds from each of her picking sessions, said she gleans blueberries from a different row each time she visits the patch because “they all taste different.”

“We’re picking different ones each week,” she said. “We’re freezing different ones each week.”

Guests who pick their own blueberries pay $4 per pound. People who are unable to pick for themselves can place an order with Denise Fugate and pay $8 per pound.

Blueberries are high in antioxidants and beneficial to those who eat them, she said.
“That’s why I can still bend my knees,” Proctor said.

Don McCulloch, 85, agreed.

“That’s why I’m so young,” said McCulloch, who looks much younger than his age.
McCulloch said he puts the blueberries in his cereal and on his ice cream and visits the patch “every chance I get.”

Denise Fugate said she and her husband purchased the property seven years ago. Some of the plants, she said, are five years old.

The Fugates use fertilizer and a product to acidify the soil enough to keep the blueberry plants happy. No fungicides or pesticides are used, however.

Well, that’s not exactly true.

Six chickens roam around the patch and act as natural pesticides.

While working at the berry patch is fun, Fugate said it is also work.

“There’s a lot involved,” she said, noting that fertilizing, pruning, watering and weeding chores are always on the to-do list. “It’s busy work.”

But her labor, as Proctor was quick to affirm, has paid off.

“Apparently she does everything well,” Proctor said. “It’s booming out here. There are blueberries everywhere.”

People can visit the patch from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. Wednesday through Sunday, or by appointment. For more information, call 782-9348.

Contact Alex K.W. Schultz at 784-5000, Ext. 1049 or aschultz@portervillerecorder.com.