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The blueberries are here: Early season fruit

On a hot muggy Saturday, I headed into Sandy Mush to pick blueberries at the Longbranch Environmental Education Center — a mountainside community whose residents might be mowing their grass, tending to American Chestnut saplings or composing letters to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission on any given day.

In the 1980s, the federal government was considering whether to place a nuclear-waste repository in the Sandy Mush area of Buncombe County.

 

 

Longbranch’s farm is open to the public; guests are asked to make an appointment (that is, just let them know you’re coming), and make a donation that supports the group’s work. The suggested donation for blueberries is about $3.50 per pint.

 

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About Margaret Williams

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