2009 

2009 was a tough year for berries. 

The blueberries were mostly wiped out by the late frost.  And the blackberries

were seriously defoliated by the hail storm on May 2.  If those plants don’t have

leaves they can’t collect that sunshine and turn it into sweet berries.

We did have a few berries but not enough to open the patch for picking.

For the first time in 30 years we were not open to the public for berry picking.

Aubrey Sr. passed away on Aug. 2 at the age of 92.  He was still working in the

berry patch right to the end of his days on Earth.  I’m not saying that eating lots

of berries is good for you, but you can come to the farm and eat them right off

the bush and decide for yourself.  We encourage our picking customers to eat

lots of berries.  They have not been sprayed with anything.  We hope you’ll also

put some in your bucket to take home so we can get paid, but first things first.

With the reduced crop this year, we sort of had invitations to come and pick. 

We called as many people as we thought we had berries for and tried to make it so

that the ones that did come did have some good berries to pick.

We were not prepared as this had never happened before.  Now it has and

we want to be better organized.  We have a lot of contact information from years

past but it needs some work.  We can get a jump start on our new “organized”

berry lover list if you’ll send us an e-mail with your phone number, berry preference, and other vegetables and farm products that you are interested in. 

We did pastured chickens several years ago and they were wonderful. 

Feedback from our customers was overwhelmingly positive at $2.50/lb. 

We stopped doing the chickens as we were going to have to invest in more

equipment to be able to afford to do it.  And like all things farming there is the

risk factor.  We had lost about a dozen almost full grown birds in one cold rain

incident and that kind of stuck in our minds.  We considered doing another batch

of “broilers” this fall but fortunately decided we weren’t quite ready.  We’ve had

almost 30” of rain since the first of September.  Thats more rain each week for the

past six weeks weeks than we normally get in a whole month.  We would have lost

all those chickens.  Seems nothing is “normal” any more.

Most of all, thank you to all our customers who have come to pick over the years.

                          870.653.2512                               

2011

Blueberries were early and plentiful. We picked almost a ton of blueberries. The early Natchez blackberries were nice but I only had a couple of rows. I planted five more rows of Natchez last winter and they are looking good. They should have some nice berries in May and June.

The Apache late blackberry did not do well last year. We had considerable cold damage as the plants came out of dormancy too early.

Everything is out too early here in Feb’12. We’ll have to wait and see.

DIRECTIONS TO THE FARM

From I-30 and US 59 S. Or I-30 and Ark 245, go South.

Follow the signs to Shreveport

On Ark 549 (new freeway) take exit 18 - North Fouke Rd.

Go left at the stop, back over the freeway 1/2 mile East to US 71.

At US 71 turn right and go 1/2 mile to Miller County (MC) Rd. 10,

(beside Commercial National Bank.) 

Turn left at the bank and go East 3.7 miles to MC Rd. 40

(See the Rocky Mound Baptist Church about 1/4 mile before MC Rd. 40)

Turn right on MC 40 (it only goes to the right) and go South 1 mile.

Farm is on the left.  Big white house with fenced yard and sign by gate.

                                    

               

                                                                                                          

                       

Natchez Blackberry blooms in early April, 2012.

2010

We had nice berries last year. The blueberries were a bit late as some of the earliest blooms got frost bit. We still had a bumper crop of blues. The bulk of the blackberries were in the later varieties that ripen in the last half of June. We also had dig your own potatoes that was pretty fun. Fresh red potatoes sure are good.

2012 NATCHEZ  pat.#20891

This was the forth crop from the Natchez and the berries, again, were BIG and beautiful.  It was

the earliest blackberry ready for picking this year. We started picking the Natchez in the last week of May. Natchez has a “running” type of growth unlike the erect growth of Apache and Navaho. 

There is some work in tying up the branches to get those nice big berries but It looks like

it’s going to be worth it. 

2013- The Natchez blackberry was a failure this year. The plants bloomed and put on a heavy

crop of berries, but the leaves never developed. The leaves that did come out were half regular

size or less.  Plants are solar powered so the leaves control the development. The Natchez came

out early and we had some freezing weather after it started to leaf out. I had a row of Apache right

next to the Natchez and it did as you might hope for. Good fruit and good primo-cane growth for

next year’s crop. The Natchez had very poor primo-cane production. There won’t be a crop of Natchez next year off these two year and older plants. The Natchez root cuttings I planted last

winter did not do as good as in past years, but I did get a stand that should produce next spring.

I don’t know whether this failure is the result of weather or it is a Natchez problem. It doesn’t

appear to be a generalized blackberry problem as the Apaches did fine. I would be interested in hearing from any blackberry growers as to how their plantings are doing.

My plants in the propagation area look fine.

I’ve been working outside for 45 years and things out there just aren’t like they used to be.