Blueberries, peaches, and the lake that makes them possible

There’s a reason the townships between South Haven and St. Joseph look like one continuous orchard: they sit in the heart of Michigan’s fruit belt, the lake-tempered strip where Lake Michigan’s water delays spring frost and stretches the growing season. Cultivated blueberries were practically invented as an industry here — the sandy, acidic soils around South Haven, Covert, Geneva, and Casco townships proved perfect for them — and Michigan remains one of the nation’s top blueberry producers, with South Haven styling itself the Blueberry Capital of the World. The famous Redhaven peach, for decades the most widely planted peach on earth, was bred at South Haven’s horticultural research station, too.

The towns celebrate accordingly. South Haven’s National Blueberry Festival has run every August since 1963 — pie-eating contests, parades, and all — and Coloma’s Glad-Peach Festival has honored gladiolus flowers and peaches since the late 1940s. Practically speaking, living here means U-pick farms ten minutes away, roadside stands on every county road from July through September, and the occasional traffic jam behind a fruit wagon. There are worse problems.