About eight years ago when Peg Andresen decided to purchase a blueberry orchard in Moneta, her social work colleagues and friends scoffed a little.

"They said, 'I didn't know you knew anything about an orchard,' " Andresen recounted.

Her knowledge in the orchard, even if acquired by eight years of experience, proves otherwise.

Clad in a blue sun hat and dripping with sweat, Andresen weaves through the blueberry plants at TLC Blueberry Orchard in search of the perfect berry.

"You can't always tell by the color," she said.

Instead, pickers can tell when blueberries are ready by how easily the berries come off the vine.

"The big ones just roll off in my hand," Andresen said. "If you have to tug, they are not ready."

What makes Andresen's blueberries different from the ones purchased at grocery stores is that they are grown organically.

"Of course they are better tasting," she said. "That could be my bias."

Andresen does not use any sprays or pesticides. Instead she uses organic mulch, green sands, rock phosphate and rotted hay. She also grows organic cabbage, corn, green peppers, squash and tomatoes to sell.

Andresen's blueberries are not harvested all at once like the blueberries sold in grocery stores.

Her berries are typically harvested from July to September, give or take a few weeks depending on the weather. During that time, Andresen's orchard is open from 7 a.m. to 1 p.m. seven days a week for customers to pick their own blueberries.

"I'm always urging people to come in the morning," Andresen said.

The earlier the better if pickers want to avoid the heat and other nuisances, such as mosquitoes.

Picked blueberries sell for $5 per pound, or customers can pick their own for $1.25 a pound.

"I can't really keep up with requests for picked ones," she said.

Although Andresen has a few friends that help out around the orchard, she is its primary caregiver.

One friend, Lea Wells, uses the fresh blueberries to bake muffins, half-moon pies, cookies, breads and other goodies that Andresen sells at the orchard.

"I cook everything organically," Wells said. "The half-moon pies are fried in olive oil."

"I just eat them fresh," Andresen said. "I'm not a cook."

Blueberries are believed to have health benefits, too.

"They say eating a handful a day keeps your blood running," Andresen said.

Blueberries contain high levels of antioxidants, and research shows the berries reduce cholesterol and prevent diseases.

"We come here for the health benefits because she grows them organically," Kim Carter of Moneta said. "We freeze them and eat them all winter."

Carter enlisted the help of her daughter Leanna, 10, and Brandon, 5. Brandon agreed to help pick even though he does not like to eat the blueberries. Described by Kim Carter as "picky," Brandon said his fruit of preference is a banana.

Another draw to visiting the orchard is the opportunity to visit the furry friends Andresen keeps on the farm adjacent to the orchard.

Four-year-old Anne-Charles Zimmer and 7-year-old Henry Zimmer got an extra special treat while visiting their grandparents at Smith Mountain Lake. The siblings, who recently moved from Chicago to Orange Park, Fla., visited farm animals for the first time at TLC Blueberry Orchard.

The Zimmer children bounced around the goats' pen, engaging the babies in a friendly chase. Later, grandparents Knight and Dorie Smiley coaxed Henry into letting an emu eat blueberries from the palm of his hand.

More than a dozen goats mill around the farm, eating grass and climbing atop the golf cart Andresen uses to get from the farm and orchard to her house that adjoins the 1.5-acre orchard.

According to the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services' Virginia Grown Web site, TLC Blueberry Orchard is the only blueberry orchard in the lake area and the Roanoke Valley that markets directly to consumers.

TLC Blueberry Orchard is located on Virginia 608 (White House Road) in Moneta, just before the intersection with Virginia 853 (Airport Road) when traveling from Virginia 122. Open from 7 a.m. to 1 p.m. daily from July to September. (540) 297-1168.