COLORBEARER OF ATHENS, GEORGIA LOCALLY OWNED SINCE 1987
August 10, 2016

Photo Gallery: Spring Valley's Blueberry Harvest

Blueberries wait to be picked on Aug. 4, well past the usual end of the season.

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Vito Tavor Coria, 58, is Spring Valley's main picker and picks between 150-200 pounds of blueberries a day. Farm manager Mason Miller calls him an invaluable member of the team.

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Miller drives out to the blueberry fields.

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Princess (or paulownia) trees are planted alongside the blueberry crop to provide shade and nitrogen-rich soil.

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Coria and Miller joke about how long they've been working together.

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Miller looks over records of pickers who've worked on the blueberry harvest this season.

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Around 18,000 pounds of blueberries wait in cold storage at the Athens Land Trust's Williams Farm. "We've had ten times the blueberries this year than normal," Miller says.

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This year's harvest was so big, Spring Valley is freezing part of it.

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Amanda Holmes packs blueberries for delivery to Journey Juice.

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The blueberries are then bagged for delivery.

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Miller delivers blueberries to Journey Juice, where owner Amy Lawrence is planning a new product called "bug juice."

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