UNC Lineberger Staff Visit Coach Sylvia Hatchell’s Blueberry Patch

Each year UNC Women’s Basketball Coach Sylvia Hatchell donates proceeds from her "pick your own" blueberry patch in Black Mountain, NC to UNC Lineberger. The patch currently has over 90 bushes and this year's weather should yield a bumper crop. Those who pick blueberries send money to Coach Hatchell on an honor system, based on how much they pick from the patch.

On May 22, several UNC Lineberger staff members got the opportunity to go to Black Mountain to visit with Coach Hatchell, her husband Sammy, their dog Mattie, and all their friends and neighbors who help maintain the blueberry patch.

If you are interested in picking blueberries from Coach Hatchell’s Black Mountain patch, they should be ripe and ready for picking by mid July. No sprays have been used on the blueberries.

For more information about blueberries, including health benefits and recipes, visit blueberry.org. For more information about research on the health benefits of berries, including blueberries, check out articles published on February 13, 2008 in the Journal of Agriculture and Food Chemistry: http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/jf072504n and http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/jf072505f.

Directions to the Blueberry Patch:
Take I-40 west to the Black Mountain exit (Hwy 9). Turn left and go 5 miles towards Lake Lure. Go right on Chestnut Hill. Go 2 miles and turn left on Flat Creek Road. The blueberry patch is about 1/4 mile at 143 Flat Creek Road.

From L – R: Ruby Gilliam, Fran Dill, Sammy Hatchell, Betty Marlowe, Horace Marlowe, Margaret Kirstein (from Marion, NC), Luny Gilliam, Coach Sylvia Hatchell, and Mattie

From L – R: Alyson Newman, Katisha Newkirk, Debbie Dibbert, Mary Ruth Helms, Ellen de Graffenreid, Eli Jordfald, Coach Sylvia Hatchell, and Mattie

Ruby and Luny Gilliam of Black Mountain, NC (on left) planted an additional 50 bushes this year. They, along with Coach Hatchell (on right), talk about the planting and growth process of the blueberry bushes.