History of Berry Best Farm, Lebanon, Maine, pick your own blueberries, peaches and raspberries

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The Standardbred Racing Years

By 1956, Herb could no longer stay away from his love of horses. An experienced horseman, he was a former member of the U.S. Cavalry. He and Natalie started breeding, training and racing Standardbred trotters and pacers. They built a 1/3 mile jog track around part of the farm. You can see the outline of the track today in the aerial photo. The poultry barn was converted to a horse barn and that was when the farm became known as the "Colden Stock Farm." For the next two decades our family raced trotting and pacing horses throughout New England.

Bozaks Return to New England

At college in Connecticut in the mid-1960s, I met my husband John Bozak. By 1967 we had two small boys, John and Brian, and we had been living in Oregon where John was working as a forester. It was then that we decided to move back to our New England roots and we purchased a home in Strafford, New Hampshire. Our family--that now also included daughter Jennifer--became more active in helping with the farm, especially as Herb became physically unable to do so. It was at this time that more blueberries were planted and more varieties added.

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Back in 1948 Christine's parents, Herbert and Natalie Colburn, bought the land that is known today as Berry Best Farm. It has been a working family farm since then and we've raised everything from chickens, hay, and Standardbred race horses to what we are best known for today--blueberries and peaches.

Early morning at Berry Best Farm.

How Fifty Years of Farming Began

After returning from service in WWII in 1948, my father Herbert "Herb" Colburn purchased the land off Center Road in Lebanon, Maine. With the help of Herb's brother Bob and Bob's portable sawmill, the land was cleared and the family home was built. Herb and my mother Natalie (a self-proclaimed "city girl") worked hard to develop the 75 acres of land into a productive farm.

From Poultry to Peaches and Blueberries

In 1950, they built a poultry barn and began raising laying hens. They had 6,000 hens and continued raising chickens up through the early 1960s. Around this time they discovered that the southwest-facing slope of the farm was a good site for growing peaches, and that was how the first peach orchard at the farm was established. At this time they appropriately called the farm "Hen Fruit Farm."

Potatoes were one of the first crops Herb tried to grow in one of his newly cleared fields, but he found that raising potatoes was too much work. The next year, he sowed grass instead, which was much easier. That same field has been a hay field ever since and today provides us with ample hay for our two Haflinger horses, Buddy and Jack.

Herb noticed that wild highbush blueberries grew readily on his cutover woodlot, and he began planting some of the first cultivated blueberry varieties available from New Jersey sources. Five varieties were established in the late 1950s, all of which are still productive.

The Fruit We Grow at the Farm

Today we have over 3,000 highbush blueberry bushes in 11 different varieties, growing on about five acres of farmland. Our blueberry varieties include: Early Blue; Blue Ray; Patriot; Atlantic; Jersey; Herbert; Dixie; Pemberton; Blue Crop; Stanley and Wareham. We also grow the following varieties of peaches in our orchard: Garnet Beauty, Red Haven, Canadian Harmony, and Harrow Beauty. We also have raspberries for two weeks only in early July.

For Today and Tomorrow

We acquired the farm from the Herb and Natalie in the late 1980s and built our home on the hill in 1996. Now we call it the "Berry Best Farm," as we continue to grow berries and fruit. Herb and Natalie are no longer with us, but we hope to carry on their love of the farm and protect it for future generations. We look forward to welcoming you to the farm!

Christine and John Bozak

Aerial view of the farm.