Byne Blueberry Farms

Byne Blueberries isn’t a family farm simply because a family owns this place.

Byne Blueberries is a family farm because Dick and Linda Byne have raised their four daughters on this farm, each one of them tending to the blue bushes that blossom with their livelihood each spring. For two decades, the Bynes have nurtured these plants and the soil that helps them flourish. And each summer, their daughters help harvest them by hand, inspect them for quality and pack them in cartons that bear their name.

While Dick handles marketing, Linda leads the picking brigade each summer. Diane, Janie, AnnNell and Marian spend hot days in the packing house, culling any berries they’re not proud to send on, and carefully filling cartons that are shipped out within hours. The timing of the harvest allows the three older girls, now in college or beyond, a chance to take summer vacations and return to the farm to do their part. They have the operations on this farm down to a science, and the equation would not be complete without a single one of them.

Dick’s proud to have raised his daughters this way and believes they’re better people for it. He’ll brag on their skills in a heartbeat. “They can pack 300 pounds an hour,” he says, raising his eyebrows.
He also says this lifestyle has kept his family tight-knit over the years and developed them into a good team. Each one takes ownership in the quality of the berries that leave this farm, and it shows in their produce.

Linda says farming is just in their blood. “There are farmers on both sides of the family,” she says, walking among the berry bushes on land that has been in Dick’s family for generations. “I grew up on a dairy farm, and we like carrying that heritage farm.”

As for the girls, this is all they know … and it’s certainly what they love. “We’ve been in this for so long, there’s a part of us that just feels responsible for the quality,” 23-year-old Janie says. “I feel like if we weren’t here, the quality just wouldn’t be as good.”