Fri Feb 10 2012
By Don Jovich
Record-Courier staff writer
MANTUA TOWNSHIP -- The blueberry bushes at Bob Stehli's farm, 3898 Winchell Road, are full of a variety of blueberries now fully ripened, abundant and ready for picking.
"This has been a great year for us," said Bob's daughter, Kelsey Stehli.
"My daughter, Kelsey, is in charge of the blueberries this year," said her mother, Marie Stehli.
Their farm, a local favorite referred to by some as the "Stehli blueberry shack," is where blueberry lovers can pick their own fresh berries right off of the bush.
"We are one of few farms open in our area because we irrigate," said Kelsey, a junior at Ohio State University majoring in International Studies.
"Hoses run through the fields that drip water into the base of the plant," she said. "The water comes from a well located on our property."
Kelsey said other local farms only produced dry or very small berries this year due to the drought like conditions earlier this summer.
Each year, she said the blueberry fields are grown in rows that are planted in the spring to produce sweet and plump berries, which grow in clusters on the bushes.
"My dad's put a lot of hard work into our farm," Kelsey said, explaining how the farm's been maintained by their family since 1986.
The Stehli family farm has six acres of blueberries, which at harvest time, yield up to 10,000 pounds of fruit.
"We plant them in the spring and they're ripe all through July and August," Kelsey said.
There are also many different varieties of blueberries, including Blue Crop, Berkeley and Blue Ray, among others.
One of the challenges Kelsey said is to thwart birds away from the berry bushes to discouraging them from eating the fruit. Other duties, she said, include mowing and fertilizing to keep their crop at its best.
"Picking is weather dependent. So, if we get something like a hail storm it could be all over," Marie said.
Shaker Heights resident Lisa Anzellotti said she and her father both love blueberries.
"We used to have several blueberry bushes growing up," she said. "I remember going out and squatting down eating all of them off before my mom or dad caught me."
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