Frost Blankets

It'll be a little chilly for our tender blooms tonight, so we covered our strawberry plants with frost blankets. It may be the last time we have to cover for the season.

 

 

Strawberry Blooms

 

February Showers Bring March Flowers,

March Flowers Bring April Strawberries!

Our Tractor, 10 Years Later

 

We're coming up on the ten year anniversary of when we added the 5th member to our family: this John Deere Tractor. Here's what Jake posted the day we got it in March 2015, "After 5 years of working with hand tools, a 60-year-old Farmall 140 that belonged to my grandfather, and kindness from friends...Amanda and I decided to get a new (nearly) 55hp John Deere with front end loader. I don't know who likes it more. Lucy, me, Amanda or Henry....we are all overjoyed! It should make our future production a million times more efficient, especially with the loader."

In the past decade, we've logged 1,500 hours on the tractor, and it's been one of the best investments we've ever made! We'd like to thank our good friend Dwight for finding the tractor for us 10 years ago, and also for finding us this Perfecta Field Cultivator that we recently purchased.

Planting Vegetables

The weather is warming. We planted our first vegetable crops of the 2025 season! Lettuce, onions, and new this year, broccoli! 

 

 

Expanding our Irrigation Capacity

 When we first began our farm we needed water for irrigation. We reached out to Matt with Christian & Pugh here in Smithfield, who dug us a deep well in 2014 (pictured). Over the years, this well has done a wonderful job of irrigating multiple acres. Although we use drip tape on 100% of our operation, a trickle of water spread over so much drip tape still equates to tens of thousands of gallons of water used - especially on this light sandy land. Now that we're expanding our specialty crop production, we recently decided to put in a second bladder tank (blue, pictured). Matt and his crew came out and took care of everything. We really want to say thank you to Matt with Christian & Pugh for providing an excellent product and service. We highly recommend them for anyone who needs a new well or well repairs! 

 

Deer Fence for our Blueberries!

 

We installed a deer fence around our new blueberries! Once we drove the posts & corner braces into the ground, we attached a metal wire, similar to a clothesline, to the top and bottom of the posts. Then we rolled out the fence and used this orange hog ringer tool to attach the line to the fence. Lastly, we drove in the ground stakes and zip-tied the fence to the posts. Next step? Installing a gate because deer aren't the only ones who can't get in right now

PS - Check out this shell that we found in the ravine in the woods behind the blueberry patch!

 

 

Picnic Tables

 

Off season farm improvement project of the weekend: putting together picnic tables! These will come in handy when students are here for field trips as well as for families to enjoy a picnic together under the pecan tree. 😊 Like any construction project, that 5th table took us waaayyy less time than the first one. 😆

We have a few dates left for strawberry picking field trips: April 24, 29, 30 & May 1, 6, 7, 14, 15. E-mail us to book your field trip today: browdersfreshpickins@gmail.com 🍓