[soulful music] - So welcome.

[Walter laughing] - Walter Clarke and Johnny Burleson are the current owners, or stewards, as they like to say, of Old Orchard Creek Farm.

Tucked back in the hills and hollers of Ash County, and the Blue Ridge mountains of North Carolina.

[roaster crowing] Their farm is one of the most popular, pick your own blueberry patches around.

Where families have come for generations to fill up on berries and enjoy the scenery.

During high season, the place buzzes with visitors.

And today that includes us.

There's a lot of blueberries and this is easy picking, but this is also a lot to fill up this bucket.

We're going to get a lesson in picking fresh blueberries and learn to make blueberry pie.

- Walter, is it you?

- Sheri?

It's really me.

Thanks for being here.

- Thank you my friend.

Hug my neck a little bit.

- Welcome to Old Orchard Creek.

- Mm, good to be here.

- Yeah.

- I believe this might be paradise.

How did you wind up here?

- We first found this place in 2001.

- [Sheri] No kidding.

- When Johnny and I came up here to pick blueberries.

- [Sheri] Yeah.

- [Walter] And of course it's beautiful.

And we stopped in front of the old white farmhouse out there, which was built in 1880.

But we just stood in front of the old house and looked around at this farm and thought this place is really special.

And then two years later we were back and we were in downtown West Jefferson, just driving around.

And in a realty office there was a sign that said, "Blueberry farm for sale".

And we thought, surely it's not the same place we drove out here and lo and behold, it was the same place.

Originally this farm was used as an apple farm.

- I noticed the trees, that makes sense.

- [Walter] Our main crop is blueberries and we operate as a, you-pick blueberry farm.

Usually blueberry season lasts about four weeks in the summer.

- Wow.

So it's in and out fast.

- It's in and out fast.

- Well, will you teach me how to pick blueberries?

- I'd love to teach you how to pick blueberries.

- [Sheri] All right, I know how to hold a bucket, beyond that, it's all up to you.

- Okay, we can do that.

- All right.

- Let's do it.

- All right.

So I didn't bring my own bucket.

I hope you've got one for me.

Alright, let's start here.

- Yeah.

- And then let's work our way over, based on absolute nothing but a hunch.

That's what I'm feeling.

- So see, there's lots of berries, right?

Berries right now.

- Do they just slip off that easy when they're ready to come off?

- They slip off.

They just almost fall in your bucket.

- But then you want to just only get the ones that are willing to come with me.

Right?

- [Walter] Right.

You want them to be solid blue.

So a lot of them will still have a little bit of pink or red like this one.

- [Sheri] Yeah.

- [Walter] But just the solid blue ones.

- [Sheri] There's a lot of blueberries and this is easy picking, but this is also a lot to fill up this bucket.

- Well it, you know, takes, it takes me an hour.

- [Sheri] So they all come into seasoning.

You just let your pickers come and just pick whatever row they want.

- Yeah, we do.

People harvest blueberries in different ways.

Some people will just open one row, and just let people pick that row clean.

We find it's, it's easier just to let people just pick.

- [Sheri] So Walter, I've got almost nearly a half a bucket.

What is the unit of measurement for a blueberry pie?

- Oh, Sheri, you'll have to ask the cook.

- Okay.

- My husband Johnny Burleson, who can tell you exactly.

- Mmhmm.

- You know, I pick the berries, he cooks the pie, and I wash the dishes.

What do you think of that arrangement?

- [Sheri] I think that that is a splendid arrangement.