In 1964, Donal & Shirley Coutts purchased 41 ½ acres of land from Mr. Charles T. Oughton, Sr. It included the three fields presently under cultivation. Field One was approximately 4/5 cleared and planted with high bush blueberries. Field Two was planted with blueberries in what is presently sections A, B & C. Field Three had the first 14 rows planted. The remaining sections of fields were grown up in trees, brush, or weeds.
Blueberry Bushes
The three fields contained nine varieties of High Bush Blueberries.
Jersey, Rubel, Stanley, Rancoccus, Pemberton, Atlantic, Dixie, Concord and Berkley. The Berkley variety were young plants not yet into production.
Machinery
Only one piece of machinery was purchased with the farm. That was a Model 40 John Deere, cleat tract, tractor. That same tractor is still owned and used at the farm today.
Blueberries
Most of the berries were picked by hand. Pick your own had not yet begun other than by a few local people who knew the farm even existed. Pickers were paid 15 cents per pound. For pick your own, we charged 15 cents a pound. Berries packaged in one pint pulp baskets sold for 35 cents a pint. To cover the baskets of berries, we used printed cellophane sheets fastened with #14 rubber bands.
Once we began “Pick Your Own”, one of us, usually Shirley, would simply wait around for a customer to show up.
Building
The only building with the farm was that portion of the existing packing shed constructed of cinder blocks. It was 24’ x 4o’. One half of the building was used for a garage with a dirt floor, the other half for a packing shed.
Shipping Crates
The 12 pint shipping crates were made from wood. I cut the ends and dividers from ½ inch scrap plywood. Sides were each made from two ¼” x 2 inch slats. Tops, and bottoms each consisted of three ¼” x 2” wood slats all fastened with nails. Around 1980, still using wood ends and dividers, we developed a folded, printed, cardboard to form the sides, bottom and top. This we continued to use for approximately 20 years.
