SPRINGVALE — Big, fat, dusky blueberries hang from the bushes this year, almost begging to be picked. The taste is distinct ”“ and perfect to eat by the handful, in a biscuit or muffin, or, as one group of pickers said Thursday: Folded into a bread pudding topped off with a Drambuie-laced golden butter and sugar sauce.

No Drambuie? A splash of brandy will do, said Jon Swanson as he picked blueberries at Rivard Farm Thursday afternoon. Swanson and Linda Duby, the bread-pudding baker, have 32 pounds of berries in the freezer already, but were picking more this week. Prefer your sauce brandy-free? Try a tot of vanilla instead.

High-bush blueberry growers, including Aaron Libby at Libby and Son U-Picks in Limerick, Pat Lavigne at Lavigne Strawberry and Blueberry Farm in Sanford, Jerry Rivard at Rivard Farm, and Frank Boucher of Gile Family Farm in Alfred all agree about one thing. Perhaps Lavigne expressed it best: “The crop is wicked good” this year, he said on Friday.

There was plenty of rain this season, which means no one had to irrigate.

There was a good snow cover this past winter, said Libby, who grows 12 varieties of blueberries on the Limerick farm, which, like the others, will be open for picking this weekend and beyond.

The varieties have names like Hannah’s Choice, Dukes, Spartan, Blue Crop and Jersey ”“ and a whole lot more ”“ while most of the others will cease picking at the end of August, at Libby U-Picks, the picking will likely stretch into early October.

Gile Family Farm store in Alfred doesn’t offer blueberry picking to customers, but they pick the berries themselves to sell in the store. Frank Boucher explained this will be the first year Gile Family Farm has ventured into blueberries, taking over the acreage formerly operated by the Brothers of Christian Instruction on Shaker Hill.

Jerry Rivard, whose parents established the farm on Blanchard Road in Springvale when he was a lad of 2 in 1926, said the crop is excellent this year. Rivard and his wife, Theresa, purchased the farm from his parents in 1950. While the farm is now operated by his children, who are currently in the process of diversifying to offer other crops, Rivard still plays an active role, weighing the berries picked by customers and accepting their cash.

Rivard ventured into blueberries in 1984, after his children were grown. He’d been a local pioneer in the U-Pick industry, starting years before with strawberries after observing a U-Pick operation in Cape Elizabeth.

He’s no fan of picking the fruits of his labor himself, or marketing the product, he said, and so the U-Pick strawberry operation began. When he and Theresa switched to blueberries 29 years ago, the U-Pick aspect continued.

What makes for good berries besides water and sunshine? Well, the crop won’t exist without pollination and the humble bumblebee is seen as an excellent pollinator. While some growers rely on the bumblebees found in nature ”“ Rivard and Gile are among them ”“ Libby purchases hives, as a form of crop insurance, he said. Bumblebees are more effective than honeybees and will work when it rains or is cold, when honeybees won’t, Libby and Rivard said.

The pollen at the base of the conical-shaped blueberry blossom makes it hard for honeybees to reach, while the bumblebees have no problems, Rivard said.

Maddie Levesque placed a big bowl of berries on Rivard’s scale Thursday afternoon. It wasn’t the first day she’d stopped by to pick.

At 7 a.m. one day, she said, she brought her coffee and plunked a handful of berries into her morning yogurt.

“I’m in seventh heaven when I come here,” she said.

— Senior Staff Writer Tammy Wells can be contacted at 324-4444 (local call in Sanford) or 282-1535, ext. 327 or twells@journaltribune.com.