Blueberry fields forever

Blueberries. They're not just for the summer anymore.

Well, they haven't been for a while, thanks to imports from Chile and other southern climes. But now California is in the game.

As little as three years ago, the number of acres planted in blueberries in the state was so small that it didn't register with the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Today there are an estimated 4,000 acres of commercial blueberries in the San Joaquin Valley, Central Coast and Ventura.

"There's some real money to be made," said Ben Faber, a University of California Cooperative Extension farm advisor in Ventura.

The wide-ranging blueberry plant -- part of the family that includes common ornamentals such as azaleas and rhododendrons as well as cranberries -- can thrive in California. The region's climate gives them, and their growers, a natural advantage. Farmers in coastal California can pick them from January through April, months earlier than the harvest in other states.

"It's not unusual to get $20 to $35 a flat" for that early season fruit, about double what summer fruit commands, said Craig Underwood, a Somis farmer who is one of the county's blueberry pioneers.

So Andy Waters, a sixth-generation Ventura County farmer, is pulling up 200 acres of lemons in Moorpark and planting $400,000 of blueberries.

"It's an exciting market," Waters said.

Blueberry acreage in Ventura County is expected to double to more than 600 over the next year as Waters and others embrace the crop.

California blueberry producers recorded sales of about $33 million last year.

Although that's a tiny fraction of the $32-billion California farm economy, the state is becoming a player in a national business long dominated by Midwestern and Northeastern states such as Michigan and New Jersey.

And the blueberry business is booming. American farmers produced 80% more of the berries last year than in 2004, for $498 million in sales, according to the Department of Agriculture.

During the same period the number of planted acres jumped 19% to almost 53,000.

Good flavor and a healthful reputation are behind the boom.

Blueberries are especially potent sources of anthocyanidins, antioxidant chemicals common in blue and purple produce that may help prevent heart and urinary tract diseases and stop memory loss. Blueberries are also stuffed with ellagic acid, which might protect against cancer.