Some of my favorite crops grown here are our perennials, like blueberries. Right now the berry bushes are still green, in bloom, or just beginning to fruit — but later in the summer we’ll see branches loaded up with ready-to-pick berries like this one (picture taken in July ‘07)…
These are plants that receive years of care and tending before they are fully mature. Farm managers call the young plants “baby berries,” which aptly expresses the kind of nurturing it takes to raise them.
And just by their nature, the perennials have a distinct and continuous effect on the farm landscape. With our annual crops we practice crop rotation, so we see different plants in the field each season. Our perennials have more permanent ties to land and location, and though we watch their growth and their transformation as they flower and fruit, they are definitive elements of the landscape from year to year.
