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Blueberry farmers not at all blue

While farms are being sold for development, a brave band is turning part of the county into a blueberry empire.

By GARRETT THEROLF
Published October 30, 2005

	[Times photo: Brendan Fitterer]
	James Owen, 50, explains the science behind his high-density blueberry farming operation Friday morning on his Hudson property on Kitten Trail. The technique allows for a higher yield of blueberries on a smaller parcel of land. Though agriculture may be wilting in other parts of the county, it is growing in a northwest pocket of Pasco.

HUDSON - In wide stretches all over Pasco County, the farmer's story is one of retreat and despair. The numbers don't make any sense. The land is bought out from under them.

Yet walking through newly planted crops Friday, Jim Owen is delighted. Claps on the shoulder, handshakes and breathless testaments to his brilliant business acumen spill out from his neighbors. His lips curl in satisfaction as talk returns over and over to "expansion."

Jim Owen and his blueberry brigade have escaped that old story.

In this northwest pocket of Pasco County, blueberry farms have taken root among the strip malls and subdivisions. More than a dozen occupy a 4-mile radius that stretches over Denton and New York avenues, west of U.S. 19.

"All these people tell me they want to be doing what I'm doing," he said.

In the process, agriculture is once again growing in Pasco County, at least in one small part of it.

A number of the owners began their own operations since watching Owen start farming blueberries in 2000 on Kitten Trail, just off Denton Avenue, in Hudson.

"I don't mind helping anyone out," said the 50-year-old Owen.

Blueberries have thrived, in part, because they grow well on relatively small plots of land, packed together.

The global agricultural market and consumers' demand for fruit to be ripe and ready most every part of the year have both smiled on them.

"We've got two months on the blueberries' calendar that begins in Chile and ends in Maine," Owen said.

The handoff comes in April when Pasco farmers rush into harvest. By the end of May, its mostly over.

Most of Owen's product is shipped express to the United Kingdom, with enough leftovers at the end of the season to bring in locals for U-Pick events.

But, like any success, the blueberry boom has its costs. Among them, the cannon.

In another corner of blueberry territory, in the neighborhoods surrounding the Links Golf Club, resident Frank Cianci has organized a petition with 260 names opposed to the gas cannon used by farmers to scare birds away from their livelihood.

"We understand the right to farm, but what about our right to peace and tranquility?" Cianci asked. "My point is that this development was here long before the farm."

Residents took the complaint to County Commissioner Jack Mariano, who has attempted to broker a deal to avoid a repeat of the noise complaints. It won't be tested, however, until the berries are ripe again next year.

"There wouldn't be any problem with the farm without the noise," Cianci said. "It's a curiosity why anybody would buy land to put a blueberry farm when real estate around here is going crazy."

Garrett Therolf can be reached in west Pasco at 869-6232 or toll-free at 1-800-333-7505, ext. 6232. His e-mail address is gtherolf@sptimes.com

[Last modified October 30, 2005, 01:13:18]