08/04/2026
**THE BLUEBERRIES OF BLADEN COUNTY 🫐**
Growing up, our family visited **White Lake almost every summer**.
We rented a house near what was then the boundary of Clearwater Campground, long before the campground expanded across that whole south corner of the lake.
White Lake was a busy place in those days. The water seemed filled with skiers, boats and families enjoying summer—and I seem to remember taking a ride on the glass-bottom boat.
So when I started researching Bladen County years later, I naturally thought about White Lake.
**I didn't think about blueberries.**
While looking into some of the county's lesser-known industries, I was amazed to discover just how important blueberries are to Bladen County and North Carolina agriculture.
Bladen is actually **North Carolina's leading blueberry-producing county**, with more than **5,700 acres** devoted to the crop. Statewide, North Carolina produced about **54 million pounds of blueberries in 2023**, worth more than **$104 million**, ranking the state **7th in the nation**.
And much of that industry is concentrated right here in southeastern North Carolina.
The area's naturally acidic, sandy and organic soils are particularly well suited to blueberries—another reminder that geology, soil, agriculture, climate and economics are often connected in ways we don't notice when we're simply driving through a place.
Once I learned all of that, there was only one reasonable thing to do...
**I had to write a song about blueberries.** 🫐🎵
It's another example of what I enjoy about researching places I've known for years: sometimes the most interesting stories are the ones you drove past without ever knowing they were there.
🎵 Town Fork Records
*Music Inspired by Real Places*
