Wow! The last several months have blown by so fast. I didn't realize it had been so long since I last updated, I will have to do better this year.

Strawberries are almost ready! We pulled the covers off today and the plants are covered in blossoms. We should start getting some ripe berries in a couple of weeks. I am still unsure which weekend we will be opening, we'll watch them really close the next couple of weeks and make that determination when we can.  The earliest possible date would probably be March 25th, but right now I would guess closer to April 1.  Historically, we have always opened the last weekend of March but with the cold we have had this year it may push it back.  I know my family is ready for fresh strawberries, I hope your's is as well.  We hope to see you soon.  Eric 

Today the strawberries for picking season 2010 were planted.  Here are several pics of the day.  Enjoy.

Our season is complete.  It has been for about a month now.  Summer has come and it is almost time for the kiddos to go back to school.  Wow!  Where does all that time go?  We will begin building the beds soon in preparation for planting next years strawberry crop.  The new blackberries are looking good so hopefully we will have a full acre of blackberries to pick from next year.  We really appreciate each of you that have helped make our little operation a success.  We look forward to seeing you again next spring.  Thanks again, from us:

The blackberries are finaly beginning to really start ripening! Yeah! There will be alot of blackberries to pick this weekend. Just remember, the earlier you come, the better the selection. And don't forget to look toward the bottom, alot of folks miss these so sometimes you can really find some nice ones near the ground.

There are still a few strawberries to pick.  If you are willing and patient, you can still find a mess of good strawberries.  The ones that are left are really sweet. The heat really brings out the sugars.  The strawberries at this point are really just more of a bonus.  This will be week #12 that we have picked strawberries.  This is by far the longest producing year have had yet with the strawberries.

Another week, same old story!  We still have plenty of strawberries to pick and a lucky few will get some blackberries.  The strawberries are still hanging around and they are so tasty!  They are medium to small in size but they pack alot of flavor.  The blackberry plants have lots of berries and they are starting to ripen.  There will be quite a few more available this weekend than there was last weekend, but they still will not be completely "loaded".  We look forward to seeing you this weekend!

I think the rain has finally stopped!  While I appreciate the rain, the strawberies do no think too highly of it when it continues for several days at a time.  We have lots of berries on the plants right now.  Alot of them will have water damage after the rain.  There is really nothing wrong with berries, they just aren't as pretty to look at and that bothers some folks.  If you are looking for a mess of berries for jam, then the rain damaged berries are perfect because they are really ripe and soft.  If you are looking for berries that will keep for a few days to eat fresh, you will have to look a little harder for these.  They are still there, but they are mixed in with all the soft berries.  It should still be a good weekend to pick as more and more berries begin to ripen.

We still have lots of blooms and small berries on the plants.  If we can avoid these extended wet periods for a few days we should have some beautiful berries.  It looks like we should still be picking strawberries at least three more weeks, maybe longer.  We'll just have to see how it plays out.  The Brazos variety of blackberries are almost ready.  We won't have any ready this coming weekend, but I bet there will be some ready for the pickin' next weekend.  The other varieties should follow not too far behind the Brazos so we should be picking blackberries well into June.

Was Sunday beautiful or what!  After two days of rain (3"), we were glad to get a pretty day.  The plants are absolutely loaded with berries so this weekend should be excellent for picking, lots of berries and lots of sunshine.  At least we'll hope the forecast holds.  It seeems that each year we get into this roller coaster with the weekly rains.  Don't get me wrong, I am thankful for the rain but I do believe it always rains on the weekend!  For those of you that have visited, you know that we are located right on the tip top of a a big hill.  This means that if we do get a good rain, the field is not really affected because of the location.  We had 3" of rain between Friday and Saturday morning and had absolutely no problems picking berries on Saturday afternoon.  Just thought I would point that out in case you plan to visit and are concerned about it being too messy following a rain.  Hope you have a great week and as always we hope you and your family will have a chance to stop by for a visit and a taste of the best strawberries around. 

I hope everyone enjoyed their Easter weekend.  Alot of you spent part of it with us and we appreciate it very much.  We had a wonderful weekend of picking and visiting.  The strawberries are in their prime right now, so if you are wanting to fill your basket you better not wait too much longer.  They should continue to produce heavily for the next few weeks before they begin their slowdown.

The blackberries are really starting to bloom.  Hopefully, we will have berries on some in the plants in a few weeks, being our first year for the blackberries we're still learning as to when they will really turn on!  We also have plenty of onions right now and are starting to get some broccoli of decent size.  We ate some of the broccoli this evening and it was goooood!  We should have a few potatoes very soon also. 

We will be open this week during our normal hours.  We hope you and your family will come visit us at The Berry Patch.

Another weekend BLOWS by!  We had a couple of very windy days this past week.  Luckily, Saturday was very pleasant and we had a good crowd all day.  We also took a load to the Dallas Farmers Market on Saturday for a test drive. This was our first experience at the DFM, we had a good turnout and a good time.  We will probably return in a few weeks to try it again.  Thanks to all of you that showed up to support us.  It looks like tomorrow night maybe a little chilly.  We will probably put the covers out even though I really don't want to mess with them in the wind.  It did thunder in February and according to my very wise grandmother that means we will have a freeze in April.  You just can't disregard that kind of information!  Anyway, if its going to freeze, I hope it goes ahead and happens so we can get it over with.

We are looking forward to the coming Easter weekend.  We will be open our normal hours with the exception of Friday.  We will be open all day, 9:00am - 6:00pm on Good Friday, April 10.  We hope you have a chance to spend part of your Easter weekend with us.

What a weekend!  Thursday and Friday were pretty typical for this time of year but what about that wind on Saturday?  Talk about cold!  Surprisingly, we still had a good turnout considering all the wind.  And Sunday, man was that a beautiful day or what?  Our temperature got down to 35 Sunday morning but the rest of the day was awesome! 

Anyway, the berries are now cranking into high gear.  I walked the field earlier and there are ripe berries on every plant.  It is amazing what these little plants can do.  So for those of you that have been waiting on the prime production, it is here so come on out.

Thanks to all those that came out to visit this past weekend.  We had a good opening weekend and had plenty of berries for all.  I walked around the field late this afternoon and there a ton of ripening berries so next weekend should have an abundance of good berries.  We have a youngster making strawberry lemonade and homade ice cream on Saturdays this year.  She doesn't have a price for her items but does accept donations if you so choose, so give her a shot if you like these kind of things. 

Pictures, we love to get pictures from our customers.  Keep 'em coming!  If you have any pics you would like to share, please email them to us.  Thanks!  We look forward to seeing you and your family at The Berry Patch this weekend!

Wow!  The past few months have flown.  As you can tell, I kinda let the website updates slide a bit so I'll give you a quick rundown since the strawberries were planted in October. 

Water strawberries, build beds for more blackberries, water strawberries some more, water blackberries, plant more blackberries, continue to water strawberries and blackberries, build new beds for vegetables, water, plant vegetables, water all, clean up and get ready for the harvest.  Like I said, quick rundown.  Do you see a pattern?  Yes it is dry, luckily we can irrigate but nothing can beat good ole rain. 

We have planted more blackberries.  I have lost count of how many at this point but it is over an acre total when added to the ones planted last year.  We hope to have some blackberries on the plants that were planted last year in May but the new plants will not fruit until next season, 2010.  We have also tried aour hand at a few vegetables, hopefully some of them will be ready for you before the end of picking season, we'll see.   

What a day!  All 30K strawberry plants are in the ground.  After they get a good drink and acclimate to their new surroundings, they should be ready to enjoy the coming months.  Here's a pic of the the freshly planted back field.

Finally, the rows are ready and the plants are here!  Notice the squares of plants in the foreground of each picture.  We will be planting them all tomorrow.

Who said farming is all work?  The kids wanted to walk around the muddy field today barefooted, so I obliged.  We found a mud hole as you can see below and had a great time.  Too bad mom wasn't home to join us!

Well we finally got all the plastic up the other day. Today, we are plowing all the plants under. We'll let the field sit until September when we are ready to begin building the new beds for planting in October.

Another week has flown by again, wow!  The weather has been great and the strawberries are a reflection of the wonderful weather.  We still have and will continue to have large amounts of berries ripe to pick for the next few weeks.  This little one really liked the berries, I just had to put it on here.  The second pic is our Russian visitors, see info below pics.

It's always interesting and enjoyable visiting with folks when they visit. We always try to find out where everyone is from.  Well, we now have a winner for the farthest travelled (well they didn't come just for the berries).  We recently were visited by a family from Vladivostok, Russia.  I searched for this city and found it was just north of North Korea and across the Sea of Japan or the East Sea (your preference) from Japan.  I learned a little geography in looking this up, I really dig geography and maps in general so this was fun.  Their names are Sveta, Eduard, and Yulia.  They were a pleasure to meet and very complimetary of our country and the niceness of our people.  Oh I almost forgot, they said the berries were delicious as well. 

LOTS OF BERRIES!!!!  That pretty much sums it up.  This weekend is supposed to be sunny and mid 70's.  That sounds like some perfect strawberry pickin' weather to me.  We hope to see some of you this weekend.  Below is one of our "regulars" showing off her weekly find last Friday.

The berries are looking good. We are looking forward to seeing folks in the field at the end of the week. There are lots of berries on the plants but the peak production is still a couple of weekes out. If all the blooms make we will be covered from head to toe in red.  Below is pic of a box we picked yesterday afternoon.  As you can see, the berries are definitely here!

The plants are looking good and absolutely covered with small berries. We sampled a few of the early bloomers yesterday, man they taste so much better right off the plant! It doesn't look like we will be opening this weekend. We will open for the picking season on Thursday, March 20. We will be open all day on Good Friday, March 21st instead of the normal 1:00pm-6:00pm.

Remember the chance of snow I talked about last week?  As you can see below, it made it. 

The plants finally arrived yesterday after a 650 mile ride from Alabama. They were sure ready for a drink! The plants were planted today, all 15,000 of them. It was alot of work and we sure are thankful for the folks that showed up to help. I can almost taste them now!!! Only five months 'til the first berries.