In the beginning(a historic narrative by Colleen Cody/co-owner):
Blue Tara was purchased by Mandy McCormick in 1998. The property was purchased as a retirement home, a place with enough yard to grow tomatoes and green onions, a safe haven away from roads with major traffic to keep the kids safe and a place to let the dogs run . A place with a huge porch and lots of rocking chairs to watch the clouds go by and to hear the birds sing. Ahhhh, retirement!

The previous owners told Momma that they were blueberry farmers and the property had 4 varieties of Rabbiteye blueberries bushes, scattered in a few patches around the property. There was also a Pecan orchard with about 40 mature producing trees along with fig bushes, apple and pear trees. There was a barn and some farm equipment that came with the purchase.

One beautiful day Momma jumped up on the tractor for a leisurely afternoon of cutting a few acres of grass when she came upon some of those fruit bushes. The previous owners had pretty much halted maintenance in the fields when they decided to put the farm up for sale so there was a little bit of work to be done, to get the place looking good. The grass was very tall with weeds as high as the tires on the tractor. As she drove the tractor with bush hog in tow, down the long rows, it became an exciting adventure. Like unwrapping presents, as the grass fell it revealed bush - after bush - after bush of limbs loaded with ripe blueberries! She was amazed at this beautiful site. I guess we always assumed that blueberries were some exotic fruit that just grew in those plastic containers in the cooler at the local grocery store. But there they were - hundreds and then thousands and then tens of thousands of blueberry bunches hanging like grapes from every single bush. She started counting bushes - 100 on this row, 102 on the next row, 110 bushes a couple of rows down. Her heart filled with joy at the beauty of such a sight. She was thrilled to share her find with the family and friends - she found some of those bushes.

In the weekends to come, the family would gather for a day or two of playing farmer. One morning son-in-law took his turn cutting grass on “Ole Nellie” as the tractor had been affectionately named. When he returned he reported that he found 3 other separate fields of blueberry bushes. 4 fields? He also reported that there were snakes and field mice and rabbits, oh my!

Then it was the grandchildren turn to learn to drive a tractor, as they were hardly old enough to dive a vehicle. The first grandson, drove back to the house with his eyes as wide open as they had ever been, reported finding a couple more fields, he then promptly named one of the fields after himself - “I proclaim this to be the Red field” he said. The next Grandson and his father set out to discover even more uncharted land, and again, more fields! When all of the property had been discovered, there turned out to be 10 separate blueberry fields containing over 10,000 bushes!

In order to describe where she could be found, and to avoid a missing person in this vast land, Momma started naming the rest of the fields. The Gator field was the first she found, then the Railroad field as we could hear a train nearby when were in that part of the property. The Grandchildren then started to pick a patch and give it their name - There is the Christy field, the M@ field (Matthew‘s trademark), the Holly field, the Chad and the Katie fields. The last two fields later became the Georgia field after two women that were instrumental in teaching us city folk how to properly pick, clean, and pack blueberries. The last field was dubbed - Twelve Oaks, for the decades old oak trees that towered above the field and provided much needed shade.

With all of the naming going on, we decided that the farm itself should have a name. It was no secret that I am a Gone with the Wind fan, having seen the move too many times to count and I was once a tour guide at an old plantation home at the site of the Battle of New Orleans and would parade around in an Antebellum dress, with the widest hoop skirt money could buy.

My oldest son suggested we christen this land “Blue Tara.”

As for those rocking chairs - they are mostly for decoration these days.

-Colleen