HAMPSHIRE, This Saturday, Highland Realm Farm hosts its eighth annual Blueberry Festival, a summer tradition out on Hampshire Pike in the rolling country southwest of Columbia.
The 153-acre farm has been in continuous agricultural use since the early 1800s, when it was owned by the McClanahan family. The current owner, Dr. Deanna Naddy, purchased it in 1974 and in 2011 placed it under a conservation easement with the Tennessee Land Trust, protecting it permanently from development. That kind of stewardship is harder and harder to find as pressure on Middle Tennessee farmland grows. The blueberries are pick-your-own through June and July, and the festival each summer is the farm's way of opening the gates and letting the community in.
This year's festival includes live music from 422 West, pick-your-own blueberries, a blueberry baking competition, a lemonade stand, food trucks, local vendors, horseback riding, creek wading, face painting, a kids' zone, and a giant inflatable water slide. Admission is $5.
It starts at 3 in the afternoon and runs into the evening. Bring shoes for the farm, towels for the creek, and a little room for something sweet. It is the kind of summer afternoon Maury County still does well.
4443 Hampshire Pike, Hampshire, TN 38461. Saturday, June 13, 3–8 p.m. $5 admission. Details at visitcolumbiatn.com.