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Hello to Everyone –
Here is the big news for all of you….The Mayhaws are ready. You ask – what is a Mayhaw? It’s a small fruit about the size of a cranberry that is native to Louisiana and Mississippi and can be found in some areas of East Texas.
Mayhaws are in the apple family. Another question – what do I do with them? Answer – make the best jelly and syrup that you have ever put in your mouth. If you want some of these, call me and schedule a time to come. There are not enough available for us to actually be open for picking…but there are enough for a number of you to enjoy yourselves. We price the Mayhaws the same as for the blackberries and blueberries. $12 per level bucket (and remember that our buckets hold a little over a gallon. They won’t last long – probably two weeks.
It’s getting closer to berry season and I know (from all of the calls) that you are ready for it to start. I expect Bailey’s Berry Patch to open by June 3rd for blackberry picking. I will get another newsletter out when we have a date or you can watch the scrolling headline on the web site for the exact day. The blackberries are beautiful right now and there is going to be a great big crop this summer. We should have blackberries thru the first week in July.
We expect the blueberries to be big and sweet this year. The first of the early variety of blueberry should be ready Father’s Day weekend. More of the different varieties of blueberries will ripen over the next two weeks and we should have blueberries until we close either July 12th or July 19th.
Here are some things to remember –
There is a map on our website that shows how to get here.
Click above link, or go directly to: http://www.txberry.com/map.html
We will be open on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays. (Yes! That means that we are closed on Mondays and Fridays.)
We have changed our hours - this berry season we will be open from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. If you see someone picking up a bucket or doing other chores before 8 a.m., those will be our Berry Patch people coming to work.
We don’t spray our fruit with pesticides and you can eat them right off the bushes (vines). There may be a little dust on them but that won’t hurt you. The blackberries must be cleaned when you get them home. Rinse them off gently under running water. Blackberries always have a few critters on them… If you eat a bug or two that you don’t get washed off, just remember “they are high in protein”.
If you eat a blueberry and it’s not sweet, you have picked it before it was ready. Select plump, full berries with a light gray-blue color. Any hint of red indicates the berry is not fully ripe and has not reached its full flavor potential.
Blackberries are ripe when you pick them off of the vines and there is no resistance. If you have to pull on the berry at all, it’s not ready.
The big thing to remember is that any berry that you pick will not “go ahead and get ripe at home after a few days”. There is not anything that you can do to make them get any “more ripe” (sweeter). The berries only get softer and that’s when they start going bad. I know that all of you have bought a lot strawberries or blueberries at the store and gotten them home only to find that they didn’t taste as good as they looked. Commercial berries cannot be picked ripe. They couldn’t be ship if they were ripe.
I always get a lot of questions on how to take care of your berries. The rules are: wash your blackberries; but don’t wash your blueberries. Wash the blueberry when you are ready to use them. Once again, freeze the blueberries without washing them. Unwashed berries will freeze individually and can be easily poured from containers in desired amounts. Frozen berries should be rinsed in cold water just before using. If you want to freeze the blackberries, you will need to rinse them and lay them out on a paper towel for a little while. Once they have drained a little bit, you can line a cookie sheet with wax paper or foil, spread the blackberries out in a single layer and put the pan into your freezer. This should take somewhere between 30 minutes to an hour (depending on your freezer) or until they are frozen. Roll these frozen berries into zip lock bags or containers and put back in the freezer. Enjoy!
We plan to have a concessionaire every Saturday this summer. We don’t have them during the week or on Sundays. What we will have every day this summer is our wonderful blueberry lemonade, popcorn and ice cream. You are ALWAYS WELCOME to bring a picnic lunch. It’s amazing how good food tastes out in the fresh air.
Our vendors, food and entertainment will start on Saturday, June 14th. This is Father’s Day weekend and families love to bring Dad to the Berry Patch. This year June 14th will be our FAMILY DAY. I have planned this Saturday around the children. I have booked a petting zoo, a pony ride, two bouncers and a funny woman who can make all sorts of things with balloons. We will probably have everything set up by 9:30 a.m. or 10:00 a.m. and will keep it up until (at least) 1:00 p.m. The cost will be $7.50 per child to participate in the activities as many times as they want to during those 3 hours. We will put stickers or stamps on their hands so that we can keep up with who has paid or not. PLEASE bring your cameras. I know that you will want to take pictures of all of this. You will still have time to pick blackberries and blueberries since we will open at 8 a.m. and close at 3 p.m.
Saturday, June 21st is our WESTERN DAY. This is the day that the Thompson’s will have their authentic Chuck Wagon here to prepare your breakfast. I know that you will enjoy that day. They will start serving at 8 a.m. and will serve breakfast for several hours. Once that ends, they will have barbecue sandwiches and chips for those of you who want to have lunch.
I received an e-mail this past week and Diane told me that they would have eggs, sausage, blueberry pancakes, coffee and juice. It really sounds good and will be an experience the young-uns will long remember! Tickets bought in advance are $10 and $12 if you wait until you get here to get your ticket. Children under 4 years old are free. Bring yard chairs or a picnic blanket so that you can sit around and enjoy the breakfast and entertainment.
Lanny Joe Burnett will also be here that day. He is a wonderful western story teller, poet and singer. Royce will be here with his guitar to play and sing with Lanny. If you were fortunate enough to be here last year when they performed, I know that you will want to come back..
Please tell your friends that our berries are $12 per level bucket and our buckets hold a little over a gallon. Our minimum charge is $6 and that is for ½ of a bucket or less. Anything between half a bucket and a whole bucket is prorated. Do remember that we ask you not to mix the blueberries and the blackberries. We always clean your blueberries on our blueberry blowing machine and we don’t clean the blackberries. If we do get a blackberry mixed in with the blueberries, we have to shut the blower line down and clean it up before we can continue.
I will have a recording on the telephone that gives both berry or weather updates. If you need to talk to either Pearce or to me, you will need to leave your name and phone number so that one of us can call you back. Please repeat your phone number twice. Sometimes we have a hard time understanding your message.
Look for another e-mail newsletter the last week in May. By then, we should have a better idea of when we will open.
Click Here for the two recipes for this newsletter. For those of you who come and get Mayhaws, I am sending you a recipe for the Mayhaw Jelly (mmm - good!) and for the Mayhaw Syrup. I know that you will enjoy them.
See you soon.
Ann Bailey
The Berry Lady
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