This is a difficult post, but so often things that are good for us are difficult. Through these things God grows us into who He wants us to be. So…

I need to let you know the status of the farm. Last year we fought both cane blight that lowered our yield to the point of closeing several weeks early, but we also have a disease called crown gall.

Blight can be dealt with and recovered from, but crown gall is known as the cancer of the plant world because of the way it systemically infects the plants. Once it enters into the plant, even if the pathogen is removed from the area, that plant will forever be infected and will continue to grow weaker and non-productive, all the while shedding the disease and thereby infecting other plants that surround it.

Gall is soil born and enters through any wounds to the plant tissue, such as from pruning, cultivating and even during the planting process. The only remedy to crown gall is to remove and destroy infected plants.

We had a lot of infected plants. And because it can take a year or two to fully manifest itself, we suspect we had more plants infected than were showing signs yet. We made the heart wrenching decision to destroy all the plants in the field so we can get at the root of the problem, so to speak.

In order to rid the field as best we can of this disease, we can either sterilize the entire field or plant the area to grass for 3-5 years and rid the soil of the disease by depriving it of a host (it only affects woody plants like the berries.) Streriliztion is not a practical option for us at this time so we have had to accept that, at least for a few years, the berries will have to be put on hold.

Only God knows when exactly we will be able to plant again, but we will endeavor to stay in His will while letting Him know through prayer that the farm is something that we want to do in the future! : )

Thank you so much for your continued interest and support of the farm.

Penny

I’ll start out this post by saying how much we appreciate everyone who came to get blackberries this year!

You all have been wonderful and it was just a delight to see you all. We hope you have enjoyed the berries and were able to use them to bring your family and friends closer together in fellowship which so often involves good food!!

Now I must let everyone know that due to a severe case of cane blight that has swept through the stand of bushes, we are forced to cut the picking season short this year. While lots of people have come and gotten lots of good berries this season, the picking was way slimmer than it should have been. The blight reduced the yield significantly so that the berries that were good were really good, but there was just a fraction of what there should have been.

So now, we give thanks to God for the berries He provided this year and we move ahead to what He calls us to do next - deal with the blight. We will be pruning out and destroying what is affected and spraying and tending the rest.

We are confident of His faithfulness and have every hope and expectation to recover from this setback, and so with this we say good-bye to this season while looking forward to many more seasons to come!

We will be working hard to get the field into the shape it needs to be so that we can once again welcome all our wonderful friends to come enjoy the bounty of His blessings!

Until then, again thanks for your support,

Penny

Time for an update!

The berries are ripening daily and are ready for you to come pick!

I know a lot of you have already been out to get berries and may be wondering what you can do with them, so I’ve added a recipe page with a recipe to get you going!

The first one is from Southern Living Magazine, July 2005 and is to die for!!! We made it several times last year and couldn’t get enough.

In other news:

We now have a cell phone so you can reach us when we are out in the field (which is most of the time!!)

The new cell phone number is 501-554-3976.

Remember, we open at 8 am, closed Thursdays and Sundays.

Come on out and pick up some FUN!

See you over the bushes,

Penny

Tomorrow is opening day and the berries are ready!!

We open at 8am so to beat the heat and get the best berries, get here early!

Remember to check the map link before you head out - there’s a detour around the bridge they are repairing on Lawson.

$10 per gallon (buckets provided) $3 per quart

PRE-Picked prices ar $14 per gallon, $3.50 per quart -call ahead about availability

See you over the bushes,

Penny

It has been settled: Opening day is June 9th!

Also, we want everyone to know that the county is going to close Lawson Road beginning June 5 and it is likely to stay closed for 90 days. Yep, that is pretty much the entire season!

But have no fear: There are alternate directions! Please check the map page for details on how to get to us while Lawson undergoes its major bridge repair.

Looking forward to seeing you over the bushes.

It is amazing how fast the time goes! We have been incredibly busy the last couple of months with lots of activities, not the least of which being our oldest daughter’s graduation. We are now focusing nearly completely on getting the farm ready for you to come out and enjoy God’s bounty!

If you are like us, we expect you just can’t wait to get your hands some some of those lucious berries!

Well, I had my “green day” several days ago. That’s what our family calls that one day every Spring when you’re going about your normal business and you notice that while you weren’t paying attention, the whole world exploded into glorious, lush bright green spring growth and you realize the season really has changed! We look forward to this day every year, but if your looking too forward to it, you end up cheating yourself out of it, having stolen the surprise away from yourself!

We’ve been working in the field, cleaning everything up, mowing, raking and trying, sometimes in vain, to get the tremendous growth of the laterals under control and conveniently confined to their own trellised rows! Somebody (that would be me) didn’t quite get to all the pruning of the laterals and some are quite long and roaming! But, being ever the optimist, and since this is only our second year, I’m considering the missed pruning an experiment! Now we get to study the effects of pruning verses not pruning in our very own laboratory and not just read about it in books.

I love living life in such a way as this! Relying always on God to take care of things that are beyond my control. He is so faithful. This is His berry farm to do with what He wills. We are the caretakers and He knows our limits, but as long as He continues to call us to this work, Mom and I are confident that He will work everything for our good, because we are living proof of His grace and mercy and we do love Him so! Amen and amen!!

As I’m writing this, He’s watering the plants with the most pleasant slow and steady rain! What a blessing. This takes care of the watering for a while and gives us the opportunity to tend to some inside house work that was starting to feel neglected. Try as I might to train that laundry, it just refuses to wash itself!

Hopefully we can get a little closer to the end of this school year, too! We are all a bit anxious to see it finished. Molly tried to insist that yard work would be a better expenditure of her time yesterday than sitting down with her schoolwork. She certainly comes by that attitude naturally!!

I’d better sign off. Hoping continued blessings on you all until we meet over the bushes!

~Penny

But not me. Not this hot. Not this early!! The weather guy said it was the hottest April day in 60-70 years!

*Note to self* Do NOT pick the hottest April day in 60 years to lay out the black plastic mulch on the huge garden that has to be held down by really big, really heavy, really many hand placed (lugged) field rocks!

Things are coming along great here at the farm - barring the heat and humidity, of course! We need rain, so pray we get some, please.

We are slowing introducing our flock of layers to the dogs, so if they learn to play nicely together, expect to have fresh eggs available when you come to pick!

Will be getting the tomatoes and peppers in the ground tomorrow, Lord willing. I’m sure hungry for a good bacon and tomato sandwich!

Blessings until we meet over the bushes,

Penny

Well, Spring is here and we are busy getting the berries ready for you to come pick!

We are clearing away the winter’s debris, weeding, watering, feeding and loving the plants. We are competing with the deer who also love our berries, but I know there will be plenty to go around!

The Kiowa already have beautiful blossoms on them and the others are quickly to follow. It’s exciting to see them come to life after the long winter asleep. I cannot help but be reminded of how wonderously intricate God’s creation is and how blessed we are to be able to participate in it!

So, keep an eye on the site and be ready to come pick - the berries only offer their goodness for a short season yearly! We expect to open for picking the first week of June.

Blessings until next time,

Penny

In my last post I said that we expected more berries out of the Apache and Navaho if only it would rain…

Well, God has shown Himself, once again, to be a faithful and merciful God! He sent the rain and the berries plumped up and ripened beautifully and we ended up getting gallons and gallons that we thought we would not see in this drought year!

It has been wonderful, and we thank all of you who kept calling to see if there were berries to be had…you were rewarded with some of the best berries of the season, too!

But, as Solomon said “There is a season for everything…” and our first ever blackberry season has come to a close. It was truly an interesting, fun, sometimes trying, and very educational first season for us and we are confidant that God has a FABULOUS second season waiting for us all next year!

With what we’ve learned, commitment, hard work and much prayer we are sure that next year will yield another great season of wonderful blackberry picking and we can’t wait to see you over the bushes!