Tennessee Berry Farms Welcome Visitors for Summertime Fun

In the summertime, there’s nothing quite like eating fresh blueberries and blackberries straight from the shrub. Here are three Tennessee berry farms where you can pick your own.

This article first appeared in Tennessee Home & Farm.

Bradley Kountry Acres, Cottontown

For Cathy Bradley and her husband Mike of Bradley Kountry Acres, downsizing the dairy farm they ran for years with her dad brought a sweet new side to the business. In 1996, after the Bradleys’ son Matt graduated from college and announced he didn’t want to return to the farm, the family sold the dairy, constructed greenhouses to raise flowers and planted an acre of strawberries.

“A few years later, we put out our first crop of blackberries,” Bradley says, noting that they added blueberries three years ago. “That’s how we got into the pick-your-own.”

The U-pick berry farm has been a big hit.

See more: 21 Blueberry Recipes to Make This Summer

“I have had people that have been coming here for more than 20 years,” Bradley says. “At the very beginning, our customers were older people who remembered coming to Sumner County as teenagers to pick strawberries. Now I have one girl whose parents picked here for years and years and years, and she would come with them. She’s brought her daughters. She’s brought her grandchildren. We’ve got a lot of repeat customers and next generations.”

The Natchez blackberries ripen early, usually in mid-June, followed by the Ouachita variety. Three types of blueberries – Chandler, Duke and Nelson – are available in July and August. Most years, the Bradleys also sell tomatoes and a few vegetables, along with beef. More than 20 acres of pumpkins are open for picking in the fall.

The best part, says Bradley, is building “those 20-plus-year relationships.” Plus, she thinks people just like getting out in the country.

“It’s a good feeling to come out and enjoy,” she adds. “You’ve accomplished something that’s good for you, and it may be a little work, but you’ve had a good time doing it.”

See more: Everything You Need to Know About Growing Blueberries

Blueberry Ridge Farm, Decaturville

Raised on the land where his farm stands today, Loyce Borron discovered that 3 of his 400 acres were rich in acidic soil, perfect for growing blueberries. But he and his wife Joyce were slightly surprised by the influx of customers when they launched their U-pick berry operation in 2012.

“Since we lived between Memphis and Nashville, right off Interstate 40, we had a variety of people from different directions and different counties coming to pick blueberries,” he says.

At Blueberry Ridge Farm, the Borrons now grow five varieties during the six-week season that starts in June: Austin, Brightwell, Delite, Tifblue and Climax, the best producer of early fruit and a good pollinator whose tubular flowers attract bees and hummingbirds. Customers still drive there from miles around, park beneath the shade trees and often spot turkeys, deer and other wildlife.

“This is the only place around here that’s got a good U-pick spot,” Borron says. “Most of them are grown up, and you can’t hardly get in to pick blueberries. We keep ours mowed all the time.”

He also grows a half-acre of blackberries, as well as hay, in addition to raising about 50 head of cattle and a few goats. His daughter Gina runs the Thomas House, a picturesque, log-cabin wedding venue on the property restored to its original state of the 1890s.

A broad spectrum of customers, from children to grandparents with walkers, visit every year to pick berries. But what Borron likes most of all is watching the plants grow and bloom.

“I just like to look at the bushes and all the blueberries on them, and all the bees and the hummingbirds,” he says.

Sandy’s Blueberry Farm, Benton

The name was sheer coincidence.

In late 2020, Sandra Caldwell and her husband Jimmy took over Sandy’s Blueberry Farm from Sandy Hood when Hood moved to Chattanooga to be closer to her daughter. The U-pick farm had been around since 2009, but Caldwell had spent a lot of time on the homestead as a kid.

“To make it easy for folks, I pretty much go by Sandy now,” Caldwell says with a laugh. “I’ll answer to either name. And the farm is pretty much the same. We’re running it just like Miss Sandy did.”

Around the second week of July, approximately 250 blueberry bushes start bearing fruit. But as is often the case with farm life, the weather can throw a curve in the best-laid plans.

“We’ve had years that a late frost happens and we didn’t have probably 10 pounds come out of here,” Caldwell says. “But then, this past summer, we had a spectacular year. We sold more than 1,000 pounds.”

Thanks in part to the soil the Caldwells amend with sulfur and pine straw, some years the berries are so abundant that they sell prepicked containers on-site or deliver them to loyal customers.

Even though she grew up on a dairy farm in Polk County, Caldwell says growing berries was a totally different beast.

“We knew nothing going in, and if it hadn’t been for Sandy Hood teaching us what we needed to know, we wouldn’t be able to continue doing it,” she says. “We learned a lot from her, and she’s always a phone call away if we have any questions. And she comes and hangs out a lot during the summer when the berries are going.”

Caldwell believes the farm has been such a success because they’re fresh, organic blueberries.

“You can go out there when they’re in season and pick one off the bush and eat it right then if you want to,” she says.

What’s more, this friendly farmer – Caldwell readily admits she’s a “talker” – loves mingling with customers.

“Everybody is just so nice, it’s overwhelming,” she says. “There’s still good in the world.”