Organic blueberries: Nick Lindholm ’86

Nicolas Lindholm '86 owns Blue Hill Berry Co. in Penobscot, Maine. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/Bates College)

Nicolas Lindholm ’86 owns Blue Hill Berry Co. in Penobscot, Maine. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/Bates College)

With an acre in vegetables and 26 in low-bush blueberries, Nick Lindholm ’86 sells most of the harvest from Blue Hill Berry Co. at local farmers markets. His signature product: a colorful mesclun mix whose ingredients range from arugula to orach.

Farming affords about half the family income, complemented by Lindholm’s off-season carpentry and a part-time job his wife, Ruth Fiske, has at a local school. They plan to expand their berry harvest and build a freezing facility — aiming not only for more business, but to forestall suburban sprawl.

“I’m looking to start at 50 to 100 acres of wild blueberries,” Lindholm says. “In this area, that’s highly developable land and very endangered agricultural land.”

This story was published in 2008.