© 2025 254 North Front Street, Suite 300, Wilmington, NC 28401 | 910.343.1640
News Classical 91.3 Wilmington 92.7 Wilmington 96.7 Southport
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Dispatch: Volunteers pick blueberries for the food bank (and a few for themselves)

Volunteer Ellen Bonzak is a master gardener in Pender County, and helped pick over 700 pounds of blueberries to donate.
Kelly Kenoyer
/
WHQR
Volunteer Ellen Bonzak is a master gardener in Pender County, and helped pick over 700 pounds of blueberries to donate.

At the Horticultural Crops Research Station at Castle Hayne, volunteers gathered to pick a new varietal of blueberries to donate to the Food Bank of Central and Eastern North Carolina.

The day starts off cloudy as thirty volunteers gathered on a the Horticultural Crops Research Station in Castle Hayne. It’s a coveted position, picking blueberries to donate to the region’s food bank.

There's one clear reason for that, according to blueberry researcher Bill Cline from NC State University. "You might get to take a blueberry or to go home at the at the end of the deal.”

Cline recommends roping a bucket around one's neck to pick buckets more efficiently. That way, "you have both hands free to pick. Just cup your hands, roll them off with your thumbs and down into the bucket.”

The volunteers loaded up on a tram to head out into the fields, eager to help the needy — and to help themselves. Volunteer Ellen Bonzak, a master gardener from Pender County, says it's wonderful to get the chance to pick for the food bank.

"With all of us picking, I think it'll be pretty quick. I hope so I can take some home," she said.

She was one of many delightful volunteers of all ages who were shocked by the spectacular size of the blueberries we were picking.

They are the largest she had ever seen, though not the ping-pong-ball sized record holding blueberry that was grown in Australia earlier this year.

Still, Cline says that this variety, called “Pinnacle,” grows to the size of a nickel or quarter. "Pinnacle is a fairly recent release from NC State University, It was tested for a long time as a numbered variety here at the farm. It is not widely planted, it's not a real high yielder, but what it does have is exceptional flavor and size.”

The varietal isn't recommended for home growers, because it's a native variety that's happiest in the acidic soil close to the Carolina coast. But they are truly massive, and truly delicious.

Their size makes it a quick job to fill the buckets. It’s the first picking of the season, so the berries are packed closely together in their clumps.

Developing these cultivars is a lengthy breeding process, planting thousands of seeds and throwing out 99% of the plants that arise.

"It's called mass selection," Cline says, "and that's how you get a new blueberry varieties. So every once in a while you see one that's, that's something really special.”

Then that special bush, like another NC State cultivar, the Premier, becomes the mother of every other variety of that kind.

“Every Premier bush in the world is a cutting off of that original one bush that was selected here,” he says.

It can take 15 years to create a new variety, and the 50-acre farm has hundreds of varieties, which undergo testing for yield, flavor, and nutritional value before moving on in the process.

The larger plantings of recently developed cultivars, like the enormous Pinnacles, are around to provide fruit for scientific experiments. But when science doesn’t call for them, they get gathered and donated.

And they’re a healthy and delicious gift for those in need, according to volunteer and blueberry enthusiast Cynthia Rivenbark.

"It's a super fruit it’s one of the fruit that has the most cancer-fighting properties. It only has about 80 calories per one cup of blueberries. And it's got dietary fiber, it’s got vitamin C, it's got vitamin K that helps with blood clotting and bone health," she said.

The volunteers picked 731 pounds of blueberries for the food bank, and filled their bellies with plenty more.

Those interested in seeing the research farm can sign up for a tour during the NC Blueberry Festival in Burgaw on June 15.

Kelly Kenoyer is an Oregonian transplant on the East Coast. She attended University of Oregon’s School of Journalism as an undergraduate, and later received a Master’s in Journalism from University of Missouri- Columbia. Contact her by email at KKenoyer@whqr.org.