The Blueberry Ranch is offering a one-time $50,000 reward to the person who identifies the next owner of the Blueberry Ranch.

Alas, on approaching three score and 10, the current owner wishes to turn the business over to a like-minded family that would move the Blueberry Ranch beyond organic blueberries.

The new owner will be an entrepreneurial family with sufficient capital to expand the infrastructure and offerings to create a one of a kind Agri-entertainment and Agri-educational enterprise.

The opportunity takes significant capital infusion and not just leveraging the current assets. There is a plethora of opportunities beyond the current organic blueberry offerings.

Blueberry Ranch LLC, 54743 Buckeye Rd, Mishawaka IN, is the largest certified organic u-pick blueberry farm in the Midwest.

The property is at two locations:

55355 Elder Road, Mishawaka - 15 acres plus 1,700 Caretaker’s home

54743 Buckeye Road, Mishawaka - 91 acres which include, 2,880 sf Sales building, 2,400 sf Packaging Facility, 800 sf assistant Caretaker’s home, 1,680 sf 14-person Certified Labor House, 3,500 sf personal residence

Turnkey operation with all the necessary equipment plus cultural staff, with 30+ years of experience. The BBR has 84,000+ households within a 7-mile radius in the very desirable Penn-Harris-Madison school system. BBR has 10,600 contacts on Constant Contact, 13,000+ followers on Facebook, and 668 on Instagram. All are located just 4 miles off Exit 86 of the Indiana Toll Road.

Beyond Blueberries

The BBR has been highly successful over the past 50 years but now due to changes in the blueberry industry and rising land values to be profitable, the business needs to go Beyond Blueberries.

This plan takes into consideration climate change, sustainability, and our loyal customer base. It goes beyond offering just products by offering great environmental experiences and environmental benefits as well as healthy living. It offers a great opportunity for collaboration with like-minded community members and producers.

The cornerstones of the plan are a Sales Building, Event Center, Commercial Kitchen, High Tunnels, Educational Opportunities, and unique products.

Why Sales Building

With a heated sales building the BBR can be open 12 months a year to sell products we produce as well as products we make such as jams, jellies, and pies, etc., Running the u-pick out of this building creates the opportunity for customer interaction with the offerings. It also creates space to sell hard goods such as hats, t-shirts, and other products. Having refrigerated and frozen units allows us to offer more sizes of frozen products and fresh products. Partnering with like-minded producers would bring in additional revenue. It could include meat, dairy, and health products, the list is endless. This would be a great source of income without much risk.

Why Event Center

A meeting and gathering place for the community. Revenue from lunch and dinner events. Activities from wreath building to flower arranging to birthday parties. An indoor place for people to gather for tours, field trips, and summer camp. Harvest dinners and small weddings would be an ideal way to increase income.

Why Commercial Kitchen

Certified commercial kitchen to produce products to sell in-store. Jams, jelly, juice, pies, etc. Needed for catering events held at the BBR and run by outside caterers. Creates a lot of revenue stream opportunities as well as an opportunity to utilize the workforce when outdoor work is not available.

Why High Tunnels

Climate change has made the traditional raising of products very risky. High tunnels give you the ability to control the growing environment. It greatly expands the product choices that normally could not be grown in the Midwest. It would also allow products to be grown organically that cannot be successfully produced in the Midwest. It offers protection from birds, hail, wind, and frost. High tunnels are now a mature industry with plenty of suppliers and success stories. An endless list of possible offerings should include strawberries, sweet cherries, apples, peaches, and other stone fruit. Again, the BBR would not be competing with grocery stores with pricing but creating opportunities for experiences. Organic wine vineyards are a great opportunity under high tunnels. It would be a first in the Midwest and opens limitless opportunities for customer experiences. All vegetables can be grown in high tunnels with an expanded growing season.  Unique product offerings could include rhubarb, horse radish, paw paws, goji, figs, teas, bamboo, currants, gooseberries, elder berries, and other botanicals. There is a plant that grows sponges that would be a unique offering. High tunnels production grosses significantly higher than field produced crops, depending on the crop, up to $75,000 per acre.

Educational Offerings

Honeybees and other pollinators, beneficial insects, worm farms, compost in action, all the high tunnel and greenhouse production areas especially the exotic offerings such as bamboo, tea, and even coffee. Again, the emphasis would be on creating experiences vs production for sale. This is a key component of the plan as we are putting an emphasis on the experience and charging for this experience.

Funding Options

1.     One owner with absolute control over everything is the best option.

2.     Investors, besides the financial benefits of tax reduction from deprecation and a share of the profits, could have additional benefits of ownership. Benefits could include first choice of all products. For example, the first year of peaches there would be a very limited quantity. Investors would have first choice before the public. You could even include blueberries such as Spartan field opens to investors one day before public. Event space first dibs over public. A pecking order of the biggest investors as to who gets first choice etc. Could even expand to hiring family members first for summer jobs. There are jobs available at the BBR for challenged people that could be filled first by investor family members. Make it exclusive to investors.

3.     Patrons, Members, and many of the BBR customer base do not want to see the BBR sold for housing. There are opportunities for funding from this group. Incentives could be similar to the investor group but without the financial side.

4.     Grants, there are sustainability, organic, and specialty grants available to this kind of business. It just takes time and determination to obtain them.

Summation

Given its location in a high population base plus the existing customer base, the BBR has great potential to become a very successful business. The opportunities are endless as well as the personal and financial gain of creating and operating the new version of the Blueberry Ranch. It would be an ideal situation for a young family to grow it together. You would also be saving a local treasure from extinction from urbanization.

For additional information email objbbr@gmail.com