BEST OF BRITISH: BLUEBERRIES
We champion regional specialities from artisan food producers
When it comes to blueberries, bigger isn’t necessarily better. In fact, blueberry farmers
Josh and Dan Benson can’t understand the current trend for the oversized berries you often find on supermarket shelves. “They’re just so bland and watery – they never have any taste,” Josh says. By contrast, whether they’re big and juicy or small and firm, each of the eight varieties grown at Trehane blueberry farm in Wimborne, Dorset, is packed with flavour. Take your pick from the delicately sweet Berkeley, the intense and tangy Ivanhoe or the lip-smacking fruitiness of Herbert. “We’ve got a blueberry to suit every taste!” Dan says.
You won’t find many, if any, of these varieties in shops. Supermarkets select their blueberries for shelf-life and uniformity over flavour, and most are imported from Chile, Poland and France. But back in 1964, when these plants were first dug into the Dorset soil, they were top of the blueberry crops. They were planted by farmer David Trehane as part of a commercial trial. While wild bilberries are native to the UK, high-bush blueberries are a transatlantic import. In 1951, David responded to an advert in a farming magazine, offering 80 plants free to anyone prepared to see how high-bush blueberries from Canada would grow in the UK. The cuttings thrived in his sandy, acidic, heathland soil, so a few years later he planted a whole acre with about 1,000 plants, creating the UK’S first commercial blueberry plantation.
RICH PICKINGS
By the early 2000s, David had passed the farm on to his son, Jeremy. In the school holidays, two teenage brothers – Josh and Dan Benson – worked there as pickers. “It was a great summer job,” Josh says. “I loved being outside, so I started helping in the winter, too, learning to prune.” University and life, then work, took both away – Josh to New Zealand as a tree surgeon and Dan to London as a landscape designer and joiner. But Josh’s love for the place drew him back. In 2013, he started working full-time on the farm and the following year he took over the lease.
While a small proportion of the blueberries were picked by the public, most of the fruit was sold to cafés and restaurants. “There was a bell on a packing shed that people would ring if they wanted to come into the fields and pick, but there were no more than ten people a day,” Josh explains. “I knew I could make more of it.”
Today, about 10,000 people visit each summer to pick their own blueberries. For about six weeks from mid-july to the end of August, depending on the weather, excited children dart between bushes laden with fruit, health-conscious couples pick and mix the antioxidant-rich berries to take home for smoothies and porridge toppings, while seasoned customers make a beeline for the rows of their personal favourite varieties, filling boxes to freeze for winter.
“For the first few years I ran the pick-your-own, learning the ropes from Jeremy,” Josh says. “As the business grew, I realised I spent a lot of time explaining directions for the nearest place to get coffee when I could be selling it here – but I knew I needed help if I wanted to expand.” Help came. When brother Dan moved back from London with his family in 2018, it was the perfect opportunity to join forces. Dan used his joinery skills to kit out a café (first in a shed, before expanding to a large wooden barn in 2020) and his landscaping skills to create a cut-flower field, providing a source of revenue when the fruit wasn’t in season.
CAFÉ CULTURE
It wasn’t long before the rest of the family got involved. Visitors to the café face tricky decisions: a large slice of blueberry drizzle cake, blueberry and chocolate brownie or a blueberry flapjack? All are devised and baked by Dan’s wife Cecily, while Dan and Josh’s mum, Jane, makes the pots of thick blueberry jam that line the counter. “Dad isn’t left out – we get him to do the weeding,” Dan laughs. One
of last summer’s bestsellers was the newly introduced blueberry lolly: the ‘Frozen Bluebster’. Judging by the number of happy purple-mouthed children (and adults), it was a big hit, but the innovation came from a last-minute need to change their operation with Covid. “Our blueberry smoothies were really popular, but they took too long to make if people had to distance while queuing. Cecily came up with the idea of the Bluebster – frozen smoothies we could hand out quickly,” Dan explains. “We were worried about how Covid would affect the business but, like the lollies, all the changes we introduced worked out for the best.”
Instead of clustering café tables around the barn, the brothers dotted them around the picture-perfect setting of the cut-flower field. Meanwhile, a booking system for pick-your-own slots limited numbers on the farm so people could safely distance on the move. “Usually it’s quite quiet in the mornings and really busy around lunchtime, but we spread bookings throughout the day, which was easier to manage and more pleasant for everyone,” Josh says. “We were concerned people might not want to book, but I think being outside in a lovely setting appealed after months of lockdown.”
SWEET SUCCESS
Josh also organises a team of professional pickers for the trade side of the business, which now makes up half their sales. “The berries have to be completely dry when picked or they lose the ‘bloom’
– the natural powdery coating – so I’m constantly checking the weather forecast,” he says. July and August may be the busiest months, but the brothers are working hard to build a year-round business from the short blueberry season. “For the past couple of years, we’ve sold frozen berries throughout the year. They freeze really well,” Josh says. “It’s actually my favourite way to eat them – they’re like little sweets; the flavour is more intense.” This year, the café also opened in spring, serving coffee and cake outdoors and selling Dan’s cut flowers.
The winter is quieter, but involves no less work. In January, Josh starts pruning the 2,300 blueberry bushes by hand, which takes two months. The company received its Soil Association organic accreditation in 2019, but the plants have always been farmed organically. “We don’t use chemical pesticides or fungicides, so it’s important to get a handle on any disease,” Josh says. “Pruning is time-consuming, but being so hands-on means I can get on top of any problems early.”
Last year, Jeremy Trehane offered the brothers the opportunity to buy, rather than lease, the farm. “It’s a big deal for him to pass on his family business, but I think he feels it’s in safe hands – we couldn’t have had a better teacher – and it will still be a family business,” Josh says. The brothers celebrated the farm’s future by planting 150 Aurora blueberry plants – the first new variety for five decades. “The heritage varieties are great, but we wanted to introduce new ones to extend the season,” Josh says. “They’re a late-season variety, so they have time to develop a really deep flavour – they have a lovely, jammy taste.” It will be two more years before the rows of Aurora are ready for people who want to pick their own but, going by the farm’s current success, they may well be turning happy mouths purple for generations to come.