Brouwer Berries: The End of a Wonderful Season

One of our irrigation ponds. Lots of fun for the family!

A few hours of weeding out in the heat today were quite relaxing. It is so peaceful to hear the gurgle of the drip irrigation on one side, the whirr of the overhead irrigation on the other side, and the laughter of the children as they run through the sprinklers on the way to the irrigation pond for a swim.

What a change from the hectic pace of the strawberry harvest! As every farmer knows, harvest time is intense, and fraught with challenges. Equipment, labor, and weather all have to work in harmony. Add to that the variability of a U-pick farm, and all of your complex schedules, it is amazing how it all works out.

U-picking mother & daughter in-laws

Thank-you, thank-you, and thank-you, to everyone who came to our farm this year to participate in the harvest in some way. Some of you picked your own, some of you brought children and grandchildren to learn about the harvest, some of you let us hire your teens as employees, and some of you made it possible for those teens to have a summer job by buying pre-picked berries.

Baby strawberry plants getting ready for the 2014 harvest.

Thank-you so much for checking the website, and arranging your schedules to get here when we were open. Each year, we plant more strawberries, in the hopes that we will be able to stay open longer so as to be more convenient for you. Last year we had only one acre, and this year, we had two acres. We planted enough baby strawberry plants this spring so that next year we should have four acres of strawberries from which to pick.

If you are on this mailing list, I'll alert you to the start of the strawberry season next summer. If you have children or grandchildren who really want to come back to the farm for a visit, and can't wait until next summer, send me an e-mail, and we'll try arrange something.