Blue Barrens Farm
30⁺ years a family farm ❧ Since 1989
Welcome to Blue Barrens Farm: a family run blueberry farm in a drafty old house and barn in the heart of the historic district of Cherryfield, Maine—the blueberry capital of the world.
Our organic blueberry barrens span 200 acres across Cherryfield, Township 25, Wesley, and South Trescott, Maine.
We look up from our harvesting rakes to some of the most beautiful and unspoiled views. For over thirty years and two generations we’ve been a family farm in Downeast Maine.
Behold the sweet lowbush blueberry!
Wild blueberries are a native heath plant growing throughout Downeast Maine and the Canadian maritimes.
The ankle-high stems flower in May and bear ripe fruit from late July through late August. Autumnal frosts turn the bright green leaves hues of orange and red, carpeting the coastal barrens with a patchwork of bright color. A thick coverlet of snow protects the developing fruit buds over the winter.
🐝 The Work of Many….
Hundreds of workers swarm onto the barrens every spring in a seasons-long ritual, dating back hundreds of years. The berries are wild, yet the management is intense. For the organic grower, it is the gentle work of encouragement and deterrence; pruning and burning; weeding and pollinating. But not all blueberry workers are human—Italian honey bees from tens of thousands of hives in many hundreds of bee yards throughout the barrens join native pollinators to visit each blueberry blossom and contribute to a bountiful harvest.
Our berries are a joy to eat!
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They taste delicious and are chock-full of anthocyanins; those neuroprotectice phytochemicals that will help you be your best self.
Internships
July 20th -September 5th, 2023
We’re looking for interns for this harvest season! We focus on community living, including working, cooking, playing, and relaxing together. We think of it like summer camp but with harvesting!
Become an organic grower
Small farming in Maine is more a community meeting than a closed fraternity and anyone who would risk time and fortune is free to join. It’s a wonderful, bracing sort of experience. Organic blueberry farming adds joy and goodness to a world sorely in need of both, and while riches will always elude you as a small farmer, you’ll be amply compensated with the richness of a life well-lived.
We have published a brief guide online which suggests how to approach growing organic wild Maine blueberries. If you read the materials in the resource list and seek out the expertise of those readily available to you, you will find yourself perfectly equipped to grow organic blueberries and to bring your berries to market.
The benefits of the organic blueberry farmer are many:
You have the opportunity to do enjoyable and meaningful work in a beautiful and safe environment, according to the natural cycles of the plants you nurture along; your community has healthy local food and a more sustainable local economy; and the entire planet gains the ecological richness of land optimally used in a natural way.
Blue Barrens Farm
11 High Street, Cherryfield, ME 04622