U-pick blueberries are tumbling off the vine at Island Holly Farm.

Kids with blue-stained hands race in and out of bushy rows at Gordy and Chris Wilson’s farm.

They duck down low for the heavy fruit other pickers forgot and spill handfuls of blueberries into little tin buckets held by moms and dads.

All the while, Gordy bends the parents’ ears with facts and stories about his newest trade.

“He’s found his passion,” says Chris, who sits in a shady apple grove, weighing out bags of blueberries. “He’s so chatty with everybody about the blueberries. He’s our ‘Chatty Kathy.’”

Gordy, fresh from the field, puts on a nervous grin.

“Yeah…that’s my new nickname,” he says with a shrug.

“Sometimes I look out there and some people haven’t moved,” says Chris. “It’s because of Gordy. I yell, “Gordy, they’re not picking because you’re talking.”

The Wilson family, which has farmed this 10-acre North Madison Avenue property for four generations, has once again found a new pastoral passion.

For years it’s been holly.

As Island Holly Farm, the family has shipped wreathes and other forms of prickly Christmas cheer across the nation for nearly a half century.

Chris introduced a variety of flowers to the farm, with dahlias, zinnias, asters, snapdragons and sunflowers offered up at the farm’s road side stand and available for picking.

Other Wilson family agricultural adventures haven’t been so successful.

Gordy’s grandfather planted ginseng decades before most Americans had heard of the now-popular herb. But the blueberry venture was ripe for success.

“The only blueberry farm on the island? More like the whole county,” says Gordy, who also works a 9 to 5 job at the state ferry maintenance yard. “Other people may have a few bushes. But we have 700.”

The Wilsons grow three varieties: the cherry-sized Chandler, the ultra-sweet Olympia, and the bountiful Legacy.

Planted on a half acre three years ago, the bushes were mature enough this summer for the family’s initial foray as a “U-pick” blueberry business.

Get pickin’

They’ve sold nearly a ton so far and expect to serve a growing and committed customer base for about two more weeks as the picking season comes to a close.

“People know about us just from word-of-mouth,” says Chris. “A lot have come back four times and some every weekend.”

The Carson family pickers vow they’ll soon return to the field – once they put a hefty harvest into a planned marathon of baking.

“Oh, we love blueberries,” says Lyn Carson, as she holds up a three pound bag of berries. “We’ll make blueberry muffins, scones, pies and we’ll freeze a bunch.

“It’s such easy pickings. In 15 minutes we got about six pounds.”

For Lyn’s daughter Theo Carson, picking the berries is nearly as enjoyable as eating them.

“It’s more satisfying to do it yourself,” she says. “You know you can get the huge fat ones, the really juicy ones that aren’t in a plastic crate sprayed and with a million chemicals.”

Theo, a 2004 Bainbridge High School grad now attending college in Texas, says she misses visits to farms.

“There’s nothing like this in Houston,” she says. “It’s great when I’m on break to come back to this.”

But opportunities to pick berries are becoming rare, said Lyn

“We’ve lived here for 25 years and we always picked berries, every summer,” she said. “Fields were all over the place. Now they are gone – alas.”

But Gordy may work to reverse that trend. After taking stock of his initial season, he may tear out some holly trees and plant 2,000 more blueberry bushes.

“Holly’s a lot of work. You’re on a ladder for everything, using a chainsaw for pruning,” Gordy says. “This is a lot less strenuous. And it’s really fun. With holly, you ship off the product. But with (blueberries), you get to see people and the enjoyment on their faces.”

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Am I blue?

Island Holly Farm, at 11054 North Madison Ave., sells U-pick blueberries Tuesday through Sunday from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Berries are $3 per pound.

The blueberry season ends in about two weeks. Call 842-6115 for more information.