FIND A THRILL ON BLUEBERRY HILL

COBDEN, Ill. -- Charles Stadelbacher can almost always find a thrill at Blueberry Hill.

Stadelbacher and his brother, Robert, own Blueberry Hill Farm, a 500-acre fruit and vegetable farming operation in Cobden.

The backbone of the operation, as one might guess, is blueberries. The farm includes 20 acres of blueberries, ripe and ready to pick now. Stadelbacher anticipates the blueberry crop will last until about the first of August.

"We are into this full swing," he said, during one of his few breaks. "The berries are there and the season is earlier than usual."

A number of smaller you-pick operations for blueberries and other produce are also operating in full swing, including a blueberry patch at Mid-America Teen Challenge in Cape Girardeau.

"People come a right good distance to pick blueberries," Stadelbacher said. "But most of our customers are coming from Southern Illinois and Southeast Missouri.

"My father started the farm in 1919 and it's been berries and vegetables ever since," Stadelbacher said.

After carefully spelling his name to a reporter, he added, "Now you know why we are called Blueberry Hill Farm."

But blueberries alone would not support the operation, he said.

In the spring, they raise strawberries, followed by the blueberries, and then blackberries.

"We're in the bell pepper situation primarily as a wholesale operation," he said. "We have about 37 acres of them we're trying to harvest right now."

Squash is planted in August for a fall harvest and 37 acres of turnips are harvested sometimes as late as December.

"Then it's time to start over again," Stadelbacher said. "My grandpa always said, `If you don't keep yourself busy, somebody else will.'"

Fruits and vegetables are "high risk and hopefully high income crops," Stadelbacher said. The weather and market, two fairly unpredictable matters, control the product and profit.

About half the blueberry crop, the first ones to ripen, is sold to wholesalers and distributed to grocery stores and markets around the country. The other half is reserved for local customers to pick themselves.

He said early blueberries bring a higher price at the market. "When the Michigan berries come in, the market usually goes down."

Stadelbacher said it's a tricky guessing game to determine how many blueberries to ship off to the markets in Chicago and how many to keep locally.

The you-pick operation generates more profit, as long as the berries are picked.

"But you don't want the berries to go back into the ground," he said.

"So far, the crowd and the berries are matching out pretty well this year," Stadelbacher said.

Stadelbacher said blueberries "are the easiest thing there is to pick."

Although it's sometimes slow-picking because the fruit is small, blueberries grow on bushes. Pickers can stand or sit, "according to which muscle is giving you trouble," he said.

With other crops, like strawberries, pickers are forced to bend over or sit while harvesting.

"One of the biggest tricks to picking blueberries is to pick with your palms up, so you catch the berries as they fall.

"I'm not much of a salesman for blueberries," Stadelbacher admitted. "I don't care that much for them raw. But I love them anyway you can cook them, in pies, and muffins, and pancakes."

The farm is located off Route 51 north of Anna and is open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. seven days a week.