Farm History

John Close, the original owner, purchased 40 acres of undeveloped land in 1936. He then built a 4-room house in 1937 for his wife Mable, and two girls: Virginia and Maxine. The house still stands just West of Kelly Road - the yellow one across the street.

Sometime in the late 1930s, John Close cleared the brush from his land and planted two fields of blueberries. The north field, currently called the “back field”, had approximately 760 bushes. Similarly, the “front field” along Kelly Road had some 320 bushes. In 1955, someone placed three advertisements for U-Pick berries in the local Carnavall Reporter newspaper. Each read the same: “For Sale: Blueberries, 6 miles east of Duvall on Kelly Road. Phone Duvall 874.”

In August 1961 John close, a retired widower, sold the blueberry fields and some land East of Kelly Road to his oldest daughter Virginia L. Walker who had grown up on the farm. Virginia and her husband, Odie B. Walker, had ownership from 1961 - 1963.

In 1963, Virginia and Odie sold the property to the Ruddell’s. Prior to buying the blueberry farm, Charles and Claire Ruddell purchased 40 acres from the Tweeds just north of the farm in 1958. Interestingly, part of the north blueberry field was on the 40 acres that the Ruddell’s had purchased. With the purchase of the farm from the Walkers in 1963, the fields were reunited again under one owner. The following advertisement appeared in the Duvall newspaper in August 1961, the Carnavall Reporter: “Blueberries - 22c lb. or Upick 15c lb. Ruddell’s Sterling 8-2313.” The same advertisement was repeated three more times that year.

The Ruddell’s sold the farm to Larry Lydon and his family in May 1968. Larry worked as a PE teacher and coach at Tolt High School in Carnation. He also taught driver’s education. Larry added the pond below the front field, which he stocked with trout. He also enclosed the carport turning it into another room to use as the farm office.Customers who picked at the farm during this time remember using coffee cans (with nylons for ropes) as buckets. After 32 years of lovingly caring for the blueberry bushes, the Lydons sold the farm to Timothy and Pamela Johnson in 2000.

In 2000, during Timothy and Pamelas first summer, they added a U-pick sunflower garden and the coffee cans were replaced with easy to clean buckets. The Johnsons never lived on the farm but enjoyed their 20 years of ownership.

In September 2021, the farm was sold a final time to the current owners, Katie and David Glenn. They have owned it for a very short period of time but cannot wait to see it come to life and morph it into something even more than what it already means to the community. They look forward to diversifying the farms offerings, while maintaining (and growing) the berry fields. They dream of a gathering space in the field for shared meals, donating berries to organizations to help do their part for solving community hunger, and transforming the barn into a pottery studio.

Many people return to the farm each year who remember the prior owners and share their stories. Occasionally, we have also had older customers with memories of the Ruddell’s. We hope you build your own memories here and come back to pick berries with us for many summers to come!

*The previous owners father, Roy Peak, researched the blueberry farms history. Some of what is included in this outline is from the research he provided.