There is only one way in which school kids exit a school bus – they spill out. In actuality, the group of Mineola teachers did an excellent job in conducting an orderly arrival for the kids. In the end, however, when the kids are all suddenly there, they just seem to have spilled out.

Lined up at the gate, many peered a bit expectantly at the grounds of their field trip venue. After several head counts, they were marched off to their respective starting points. 

Three primary school classes had just arrived at Blueberry Ridge Farm.

Significant logistics had already taken place prior to the kiddos’ arrival. Parents had been asked to come out early, and the staff had a great plan in place for parking their vehicles. The arrivals were de-conflicted with those of the school busses.

Jerry and Jill Graves, proprietors of Blueberry Ridge, were busily making last minute staging adjustments in the face of gale force winds. Once the kids arrived, the parents forgot that they were cold, and the action commenced. 

Children rotated through a variety of stations. Inside the welcome building was pumpkin-decorating; just outside the building was a pumpkin relay and a musical game of passing-around-the-pumpkin. Meanwhile, one group climbed aboard a trailer and started their day with a hayride through the 67-acre property. 

The educational event was down next to the pumpkin patch, where the Graveses’ daughter, Breeann, led an interactive discussion on the life cycle of the pumpkin plant. Breeann’s two horses, Shiner and Comanche, observed the activity from a nearby grazing pasture.

Two additional stations, one featuring footraces and the other dressing up a scarecrow, rounded out the activities. 

All told, it was a full day in two hours. 

It was the end of the season, and Blueberry Ridge had been busy. School children from Alba-Golden, Campbell, Hawkins, Mineola, Rains, Sabine, Sulphur Springs and Yantis schools had visited the sloping property between US 80 and CR 1801, just east of Mineola. 

Earlier in the week, Jill Graves had the time, between regular customers, to describe the origins of what has become a sought-after field trip destination. 

The Graveses purchased the property in 1992. At the time, Jerry and Jill were in the middle of successful careers in sales and marketing. Jill had been a trailblazer as the first woman salesperson at STEMCO Industries of Longview – a specialized truck outfitting company – while Jerry worked for a number of major telecommunications firms. 

Their sales routes had often taken them down US 80 and past the property which they would come to love. One day, there was a for sale sign.

The property is a rectangular parcel that cascades gently from its high point at the CR 1801 frontage down to Highway 80. With a ridge running down the middle, two slopes fall off to the east and west as the terrain descends. Perfect growing land.

At the time of purchase the land hosted 10 acres of blueberries and a peach orchard. Since then, there were a lot of changes.

“Initially, we tried to manage the farm, but we had to relocate to the property first, and that took some time,” Jill admitted. She added that thereafter the fine-tuning came more easily. 

After a decade of running blueberries into market stores in Dallas, the Graveses eventually opened a B&B and booked it during blueberry harvest season. In the meantime, Jill began a second career as a teacher, and the property became a perfect setting for raising son Jered and daughter Breeann. 

For a long stretch in the early 2000s, the farm was run strictly for pick-your-own blueberries. The Graveses also had the opportunity to add the adjacent small holding on which the New Hope School once stood. 

At one point, the Graveses decided it was time to downsize. The property sat for three years, with no offers. Eventually, it was Breeann – now the ag-science teacher at Ore City high school – and her husband who purchased the main house and surrounding four acres.  

The senior Graveses remain intimately involved in operations and the most recent vision of a seasonal, educational farm. There are plans for a Christmas venue, a petting zoo, a spring harvest and a corn maze. Based on the success of the current pumpkin patch, local students may be seeing much more of Blueberry Ridge.

Jerry was very optimistic about the future for the farm. “We have received such great community support in what we are trying to do, and we are learning so much with every visit,” he explained.  It appears as though the Graveses have found the right measure for their beautiful piece of Wood County.