Vito Tavor Coria, 58, is Spring Valley’s main picker and picks between 150-200 pounds of blueberries a day. Farm manager Mason Miller calls him an invaluable member of the team.
Miller drives out to the blueberry fields.
Princess (or paulownia) trees are planted alongside the blueberry crop to provide shade and nitrogen-rich soil.
Coria and Miller joke about how long they’ve been working together.
Miller looks over records of pickers who’ve worked on the blueberry harvest this season.
Around 18,000 pounds of blueberries wait in cold storage at the Athens Land Trust’s Williams Farm. “We’ve had ten times the blueberries this year than normal,” Miller says.
This year’s harvest was so big, Spring Valley is freezing part of it.
Amanda Holmes packs blueberries for delivery to Journey Juice.
The blueberries are then bagged for delivery.
Miller delivers blueberries to Journey Juice, where owner Amy Lawrence is planning a new product called “bug juice.”
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