The Accidental Blueberry Farmer

We were surprised to learn that Gault was an accidental farmer, who’d never intended to get into agriculture. Instead, he’d spent decades of his life running Gault’s Fountain & Service Center, a hub of commerce and social activity in Gray Court. When he purchased the property in 2009, he thought he was buying a forest. Unbeknownst to him, there was also an understory of blueberry plants, with muscadine vines and pecan trees throughout.

Go back three decades. Mr. Bill Gentry, the original owner of the land and the farm’s namesake, had been the proprietor of the local hardware store in Gray Court.

On his land, he’d decided to buck the typical agricultural approach of plowed soil with rows of annual corn or cotton, and instead planted perennial fruit and nut crops. He also used his knowledge from his hardware store business to install a well-fed irrigation system that was far ahead of its time.

Sadly, upon his passing, the property sat dormant and untended for over 7 years. As any biology student familiar with ecological succession might predict, larger trees and shrubs soon took their place amongst the fields of abandoned blueberries.

And this is when Gault, the accidental farmer, became the new steward of Gentry Farms.

Ironically, his lack of experience and knowledge would turn out to be an asset. Soon after discovering the hidden berry fields, Gault called out the area agricultural extension agents for advice, and was told that a regimen of insecticides, fungicides and herbicides was necessary if he wanted to farm blueberries there. “I figured if the plants had done just fine on their own for seven years, why on earth did I need to buy and apply a bunch of poison for them to keep growing,” he said.w

Seven years later, this decision has served him well. He has never used any of the “icides” that were recommended to him by the extension agents, a decision which became all the more personal to him after landing in the hospital due to a severe, life-threatening reaction to pesticides he unknowingly consumed on a friend’s garden okra. The only inputs he uses on his farm are yearly applications of fertilizer and regular irrigation during the growing season. (On our much smaller home-scale blueberry operation, we’ve found that wood chip mulch and actively aerated compost teas provide all of the biological fertility our plants require.)

Unfortunately, Gault’s more natural approach to blueberry farming is more the exception than the norm amongst blueberry growers in South Carolina, but the decision has paid off financially. Not only does he have to pay less to produce his berries due to fewer inputs, but his berries are highly sought after by the general public and chefs from Greenville’s top restaurants due to their exceptional flavor and lack of pesticides. (Six pickers during the summer help Gault keep up with demand.)

It was late July when we visited, and Gentry Farms’ fields were absent of the upickers (children and parents) that frequent the farm during the height of the season. However, there were still more than enough berries on his bushes for us to eat our fill of multiple varieties—and we can attest to the fact that we found them all delicious.

Gault drove us around his farm on his golf cart, showing us hidden blueberry fields in the back of the property where he also raises honeybees with the help of a local beekeeper. As it turns out, the farm’s history predated both Gault and his predecessor, Mr. Gentry. He showed us a family graveyard, long since overtaken by oak trees, that held the gravestone of Martin Dial, a Revolutionary War veteran born in 1723 and deceased in 1823. (Perhaps Mr. Dial’s secret to longevity was a daily ration of antioxidant and nutrient-rich blueberries.)

Gault’s accidental foray into agriculture has given him plenty of projects to focus on, now that he’s retired from his previous business. His high-energy, action-oriented personality juxtaposes interestingly against a farm whose 300-year history and decades-old perennial crops seem to cry out for its human inhabitants to slow down, listen and learn.

Gault has certainly listened to and learned from what the land has to teach, but we suspect he won’t be slowing down any time soon. There are too many people out there who want delicious, fresh, pesticide-free blueberries, and Mr. Gault is happy to accommodate them with the fruits of his efforts.

Gentry Farms
369 Dials Church Rd
Gray Court
864-230-3837