LAWRENCEVILLE: Blueberries served hot at annual fruit festival

By Jennifer Bradley, Staff Writer
   The excessive heat this Saturday and Sunday didn’t stop people from heading to Terhune Orchards for the annual Blueberry Bash.
   ”The festival is fun for everyone,” said Pam Mount, one of the owners of the orchards. “Blueberry bushes aren’t thorny like raspberry bushes and they aren’t tall trees, so even the young kids can enjoy picking them.”
   One of the people who attended the festival, Jeff Varisco, also pointed out that the highbush blueberry is the official state fruit of New Jersey, so it’s fun to celebrate the fruit.
   ”We came to the event because we wanted to give our daughter an experience about what a farm is like and how blueberries are grown,” said Princeton resident Nupur Agarwal, who was at the festival with her husband, Rishi, and her daughter, Rhea, 4.
   ”Our daughter loves blueberries and it’s nice that they’re small and don’t have big seeds,” said Ms. Agarwal. “You don’t have to cut them and you can have them on the go. It’s that easy.”
   The area with the blueberry bushes was surrounded by netting, which was put up to keep birds and other critters from eating the berries, according to Ms. Mount.
   Basking Ridge residents Ellen Rich and Grayden Varisco, 8, were under the net picking blueberries together.
   ”We love blueberries because they are small and tangy,” said Ms. Rich. “We like to make pie or ice tea with them.”
   ”They are sour but not too mushy,” said Grayden.
   Robbinsville resident Ares Rodriguez, 10, was also picking blueberries with his aunt, Cindy Zirkin, who was visiting from Hawthorne.
   ”I like blueberries because they taste very good and they are juicy,” said Ares.
   Ares also took advantage of some of the other attractions of the day by going on a wagon ride and watching the puppet show, Tucker’s Tales.
   The Blueberry Bash also featured wine tasting, a live band and pony rides.
   ”We come to Terhune a lot,” said West Windsor resident Tanja Sargent, who was with her son Johnny, 2. “Johnny loves the animals and the rides and I came for the band.”
   There was also a blueberry bake-off on Sunday that, according to Ms. Mount, featured a couple of dozen recipes of homemade blueberry treats. After the bake-off the recipes are shared with everyone.
   The farm also set up two cooling stations that misted people with water in an attempt to beat the heat.
   ”People are coming, they just aren’t staying too long,” said Ms. Mount. “There probably would have been more people if it weren’t so hot.”
   Ms. Mount said blueberries are not traditionally grown in Mercer County, so the farm wanted to raise awareness about Terhune’s crop.
   According to Ms. Mount, the farm raised the blueberry beds and used large amounts of mulch and irrigation to successfully grow the berries and they are proud to host the Blueberry Bash every year.