How to Start a Blueberry Farm - The Space, Soil and Water Requirements and Economics

Introduction

How to Start a Blueberry Farm - The Space, Soil and Water Requirements and Economics

How to Start a Blueberry Farm - The Space, Soil and Water Requirements and Economics

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How to Start a Blueberry Farm - The Space, Soil and Water Requirements and Economics

How to Start a Blueberry Farm - The Space, Soil and Water Requirements and Economics

In the United States, blueberries are carefully the second most important cultivated berry after strawberries. To start a blueberry farm could be a good long-term investMent. Once established blueberry plants can be efficient for 25 years. To start a blueberry farm you must take a long-term view. Blueberries take about 7 years to reach full maturity and production. This means it takes a lot of investMent, hard work and patience while it is being developed. any way it can be rewarding in the long run. You can start getting some minute output the third year of growth. The estimate of output will depend on the varieties selected. You will probably not see essential blueberry output until about the fourth year of growth.

In beginning a blueberry farm my guidance would be to first do study about growing blueberries, find the varieties that will do well in your area. Plant early, mid-season and late season ripening varieties to increase your time to harvest and sell blueberries. Give them plentifulness of space in between for Air circulation by pruning them as needed. If you are planning to be a large market production, some varieties lend themselves best to machine harvest than others, chose varieties that ripening pretty much the same time for machine harvesting.

Space, Soil and water requireMents

Well drained soil rich in organic material is a necessity for good blueberry production.

Before beginning growing blueberries it is essential that you have your soil tested by the local prolongation service to learn what aMendments may be required. The soil for example must have a pH between 4.6 and 5.1. Blueberry plants will not grow adequately unless the pH requirements of the soil are met. Blueberries require soils with good drainage and high organic matter. These two requirements can be met by adding organic matter to the soil and using raised beds to make sure there is good drainage. It is best to plant more than one cultivar to ensure good pollination and a continuous harvest of berries.

Also a source of water for irrigation is a requirement to grow blueberries commercially. You can expect to be able to grow sufficient blueberries on 10 acres on suitable land once the plants have reached maturity make a livelihood. It is wise to start with a small estimate of plants at first to go straight through a studying curve before beginning with larger numbers of plants. You should start preparation you soil and killing weeds the year before planting.

Machinery Needed

Fixed machinery needed includes sprayers, rotary mowers, wagons, tractors, hedgers, trucks, spreaders, mulchers, harrows and rotary tiller

Plant option and purchases

Usually two-year-old potted or bare-root plants are sold by nurseries are your best purchase. Older plants may give you a harvest sooner, but they are commonly not cost-effective because of their added price and can be harder to establish. Younger plants must be grown in pots under nursery conditions before they can survive planting in the field so again are not usually cost-effective. You want to grow varieties that will make good profit. Bluecrop, and blueray are two northern varieties that many use as their main plants. Bluegold is also a popular plant. In the south rabbiteyes such as Tifblue, Premier, Powder blue are popular money makers. Legacy, Misty, O'Neal and Ozarkblue are also popular with some growers. elect plants for your growing zone and plants with the flavor and holding quality that suits you.

Economics of blue berry farming

The high first the start-up costs for blueberries is high, this is in general due to land preparation, labor costs and plant purchasing cost. However, after the plants reach maturity in approximately five to seven years, the profits should steadily increase. If you have minute funds you can start small, contribute your own labor and hold your cost down while developing your farm.

In very broad normal terms for a mature ongoing blueberry doing about 50% to 65% of the sale price goes to pay expenses. For farms that sell as You-pick doing the expenses are bottom and can be only 35% of the sales. For sales to shop and other markets the cost are higher. The longevity of a properly managed blueberry field is 15 to 30 years.

Establishing a blueberry planting requires a large investment of time and money. Based on a estimate of assumptions, I assessment we spent preparation costs amounting to about ,000 per acre getting our plants growing. Before full output is achieved in Year 7, in 2010 Dollars you could spend well over 0,000 in cash to finance the preparation of a 10 acre blueberry operation.

Typically blueberry plants reach full output in their 7th year after planting. The first year there is no production, the second you can expect about 1500 pounds per acre and then it grows exponentially till they reach full output of nearby 6000 pounds per acre. The size of the harvest depends on many factors such as the blueberry variety, climate, condition of the soil, water availability etc. Clearly you can see that the first three years are the toughest. You have made a huge investment and won't see any essential return on it till the fourth year after planting.

Marketing

It is important to decree the market before beginning a blueberry farm.

If you are within about 40 miles of a large population area u-pick is an option to consider.

Marketing at farmers markets and sales directly to shop is someone else alternative.

You can sell your blueberries as part of a society supported agriculture theory (Csa). This can give you a regular and steady market. It also provides an chance to build a association with your customers.

Harvesting

The three primary methods of harvesting are: 1) u-pick, 2) Farm hand picking and 3) machine picking. A u-pick or farm hand picking is most practical when first beginning out with only a small estimate of blueberry plants. It commonly requires at least 10 acres of blueberries before machine picking is cost effective.

How to Start a Blueberry Farm - The Space, Soil and Water Requirements and Economics

How to Make Soft, Moist Muffins

There is nothing like a tender, soft, moist muffin right from the oven. The excellent muffin's surface is never hard, and when pulled from its muffin paper or popped out right from the muffin pan it comes out wholly and easily. How in the world is this done?

How to Make Soft, Moist Muffins

How to Make Soft, Moist Muffins

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How to Make Soft, Moist Muffins

How to Make Soft, Moist Muffins

There are some tricks to muffins that many recipes (or box instructions even) do not include.

The first trick is to Never use a hand mixer. Think of muffin batter as a tiny soft baby that can truly crush.

The best utensil for mixing muffins is a wooden spoon.

Make a well into the dry ingredients of the muffins and add the wet ingredients into the "hole". gently fold the dry ingredients over and stir softly. Never stir the batter more than 20 times; count each turn of the spoon around the bowl as one, two, and so on.

It is okay to have some lumps in the batter. The object is not to rid the batter of the lumps, but to not over mix.

When putting the batter into the muffin tins, I like two methods. The first, method is to use a ¼ cup measuring cup. My other favorite method is to use an ice cream scoop with the sliding piece inside to truly push the batter out of the spoon and into the cup.

Here are a combine of recipes to try your hand at:

Blueberry Muffins

Use fresh or icy blueberries to make these blueberry muffins.

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup sugar
1 cup buttermilk
2 eggs, beaten
1/2 cup melted butter or margarine
1 1/2 cups fresh or icy blueberries, rinsed
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
Sugar for topping

Sift flour, baking powder, salt, and 1/2 cup sugar. Add buttermilk, beaten eggs, and melted butter; mix until dry ingredients are just moistened. Mix berries with 2 tablespoons of flour; fold berries into batter.

Spoon batter into greased muffin pans, filling each muffin cup about 2/3 full. Sprinkle each with a small sugar. Bake at 400° for 20 to 25 minutes.
Makes 18 to 24 muffins.

Streusel Muffins

For Muffin Mix:
1 egg
3/4 c. Milk
1/3 c. Oil
1 3/4 c. All purpose flour
1/4 c. Sugar
2 1/2 tsp. Baking powder
1/2 tsp. Salt

Streusel Mix:
1/2 c. Chopped nuts
1/2 c. Brown sugar
1 tsp. Cinnamon
2 tbsp. Melted butter

Grease or line 12 muffin cups with paper cup liners. In a bowl, slightly beat the egg; beat in milk and oil. Set aside. In a large bowl stir flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Make a well in the center. Add the egg aggregate all at once. Stir just until moistened. Do not over beat. Batter should be lumpy. Spoon into muffin cups, filling each 2/3 full.

Top with streusel. Bake at 400 degrees for 20 to 25 minutes. Take off and serve warm.

Optional: isolate streusel mix in half. Put in the center of the muffins and rest on top.

How to Make Soft, Moist Muffins

Four Foods That increase Hdl - Good Cholesterol

Why do we need Hdl?
Our liver manufacturers enough cholesterol for our corporal needs. Cells use cholesterol for prominent functions. For easy converyance to the cells, the cholesterol is wrapped in a protein sheath. These particles are called Ldl cholesterol. You can think of them as minute dump trucks traveling in the bloodstream to the cells that need them.

Four Foods That increase Hdl - Good Cholesterol

Four Foods That increase Hdl - Good Cholesterol

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Four Foods That increase Hdl - Good Cholesterol

Four Foods That increase Hdl - Good Cholesterol

In a healthy and well balanced body, any Ldl not used is gathered by Hdl particles and conveyable back to the liver where it is recycled or eliminated from the body. If our levels of Hdl are low this process is not possible and if this happens for too long, Ldl hangs nearby in the bloodstream available to wreak damage on the artery walls.The succeed is high cholesterol levels and all its related condition problems. So high Hdl cholesterol levels are needed to keep the arteries free of unneeded Ldl.

Ldl cholesterol is termed 'bad cholesterol' while Hdl has a heart-protective function and is recognized as 'good cholesterol'. Hdl levels of greater than 40 mg/dL and Ldl levels of less than 100 mg/dL are desired. If our levels don't fall in the desired ranges then in most cases a convert of diet can improve them.

What is your daily calorie intake?
Many habitancy just eat too much, so the first step is to eat smaller portions - cut back. Most habitancy can speak good condition with a natural-Foods diet of about 2,000 calories a day. Consider just how many calories a day do you eat? And how are the calories spread? Are they high in fat, refined sugars and carbohydrates? If you succeed the suggestions below and continue eating too much of the wrong things then it all becomes self defeating. So it is prominent to understand what your daily diet consists of. Being overweight has been shown to be a contributor to low blood Hdl levels.

Can diet help increase Hdl?
The short answer is - yes it can. However, it is wrong to assume that we need to avoid all Foods that contain cholesterol and eat a diet low in fat. While it can lower our cholesterol levels it can also be responsible for causing a lopsided ratio between Hdl and Ldl which can increase the risk of heart disease. We need to originate a higher total of Hdl to Ldl ratio. Ideally, total cholesterol levels which are computed from Hdl, Ldl, and triglycerides or blood fats should be less than 200 mg/dL.

Which Foods can contribute the exact ratio?
There are times when we need to increase our Hdl levels and commonly a diet that includes 70% carbohydrates and 30% saturated fats will succeed in high cholesterol levels. This is typical of an American diet at this time. We should instead substitute saturated fats with polyunsaturated fats and total fats should not make up more than 10% of our daily diet. Oils such as Omega-3 fatty acids, olive oils or canola oils constitute these good fats as well as nuts.

We need a diet high in fresh fruits and vegetables, high in fibers and low in carbohydrates.

Four Foods capable of raising Hdl cholesterol

1. Soy products.
Soy proteins contribute many unique benefits which makes them super proteins and one of the main sources of food for those who are vegetarians. Soy offers a faultless amino acid profile because it contains all important amino acids important for our food and as we cannot create our own source of amino acids, we need to get them from our diet.

Soy protein increases the operation of enzymes responsible for breaking down cholesterol. Sources of soy can be found in suppleMents, cereals, soy nuts, milk and tofu.

2. Green leafy vegetables
While most fruits and vegetables contribute plant sterols which help increase Hdl levels there are those that stand out, surrounded by them being, avocado and dark green leafy vegetables.

Avocado is rich in oleic acid a monounsaturated fat; one per day can increase Hdl levels by as much as 17%. Green leafy vegetables such as kale, Swiss chard, collard greens and spinach work much in the same way as an avocado for raising Hdl levels.

3. Blueberries
Berries, especially blue berries contain an antioxidant called pterostilbene which is also found in grapes and red wine and which is responsible for the increase of Hdl. In fact many fruits that are purplish or bluish in colour produce similar results.

4. Monounsaturated fats
In the form of nuts, oily Fish, olive oil, flax seed oil and the like are a good source for increasing Hdl levels. As an alternative to animal proteins these fats contribute great benefits for our Hdl levels.

Aerobic exercise has been shown to raise Hdl levels. So an Hdl cholesterol diet rich in the above natural foods along with a good exercise plan will raise Hdl levels and it will have inescapable effects on Ldl levels and total cholesterol.

Four Foods That increase Hdl - Good Cholesterol