It’s almost time…..
And here is the big announcement….
You need to find your sun hat  , your tennis shoes  ,
your camera  and your sunglasses  !
We will open sometime next week for blackberry picking! Now that is BLACKBERRY and not blueberry. We should be able to start picking blueberries by the following weekend on June 14th.
I don’t know yet which day we will open next week – probably Tuesday or Wednesday. I will get a short newsletter out when we have the exact date and I will also post it on the website.
There is a good possibility that we will have some “already” picked berries by Saturday, June 7th. Pearce plans to drive to East Texas to see one of our “blueberry friends” each Friday and will be bringing 100 gallons of berries with him. With the increased price of his berries and with the price of gas now, we are going to have to increase the price on these berries to $20 per gallon. This does not mean that the berries that you will pick at Bailey’s Berry Patch have had a price increase. We are leaving our price the same that it has been for the last few years - $12 per level bucket. If you want the already picked berries and want to be certain that they are here, you will need to call us at (903) 564-6228 and place an order. The berries that are not preordered will be sold each Saturday morning. Remember, we will only have 100 gallons each week.
More to remember –
We are open on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. This is a change from the years before; but Pearce and I are getting older and can’t do “the open at dawn” thing anymore.
We do take credit cards – only MasterCard and Visa. We are not set up for Discover or American Express.
We do take checks.
Please don’t bring your pets. We will keep ours in the house and have a rule that there can’t be any pets while we are open. Every year, I have some wife come up to the front and tell me that her husband is back at the car with their dog. It’s so funny because she will proceed to tell me that she had told him not to bring the dog; but he had insisted that it would be OK. NOT OK…
No alcohol on the property. We take great pride in the fact that this is a family place and we work hard to make certain that we don’t have any preventable problems.
Parents (grandparents) must be in control of their children (grandchildren). We expect that all children and grandchildren will be well supervised. Please don’t send them up to the front area for them to sit down. #1 – they never do sit and, #2 - we can’t control them as well as you can. Unsupervised children can do a great deal of damage to the berries. You may think that what they are doing is cute – but we are too busy with everything that is going on to appreciate their antics. Please tell all of them to be courteous and to use their best manners.
If you have a problem with a group or with a family, please let me know and I will handle the situation. I want to be certain that we think of the other people here and may have to leave. I think that my job description reads "Ringmaster".
Please! Be kind to yourself and bring your sunscreen and your bug spray.
We have free water or you can purchase something out of the cooler.
If a thunderstorm comes up, we will ask everyone to come into the barn until the storm passes thru. Everyone loves to pick when it’s raining and we certainly don’t mind that.
 Pearce can always pull a car out of the mud with the tractor.
(He had plenty of experience last year.)
 I will keep a current message on the recorder on the telephone (903) 564-6228. I try to change it every day once berry season starts. PLEASE DON’T CALL from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. We are going to try to sleep a little later this year.
Our vendors will start coming on Saturday June 14. I know that you will enjoy all of them. We are fortunate this year in that we have a really mixed group. If you know of someone else who might want to set up, please have them call me. Our concessionaire will also start on June 14. He plans to have sausage & biscuits and biscuits & gravy for breakfast and hamburgers, hotdogs, chopped beef sandwiches, fresh cut French fries and chips for lunch. There is no way that you will go hungry.
We will have popcorn, ice cream and blueberry lemonade everyday for your enjoyment. Yum…Yum…
Now let me remind you about the entertainment. It will start on June 14th and go thru July 5th. June 14th is going to be a very special day. This is the day before Father’s Day and we are going to call it our “Family Day”. For a nominal fee of $7.50 per child, the young ones can spend three hours enjoying a petting zoo, a pony ride, two bouncers and a woman making animals and hats out of balloons. This will be offered from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Since we are going to be open from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m., everyone will have an opportunity to pick all the blackberries and blueberries that they want to pick.
June 21st is our annual Western Day. We have an authentic chuck wagon heading our way from the Texas Panhandle. They will be serving a special breakfast that includes blueberry pancakes, sausage, eggs, coffee and orange juice. Tickets purchased in advance will be $10 per person and will be $12 per person if purchased at the Patch that day. Children 4 and under can eat for free. Doesn’t this sound good? Lanny Joe Burnett and his crew will be here to entertain with western music, stories and poetry. They were here last year and were wonderful. I know that you will enjoy a morning of fun. The chuck wagon will be serving barbecue sandwiches for lunch and Joe (our concessionaire) will have his hamburgers and hot dogs.
I will tell you more about June 28th and July 5th in my next newsletter. We stop the entertainment after July 5th and let everyone finish the berry picking season in peace. I anticipate that we will be open until (at least) mid-July.
Lost & Found
I am going to start a LOST & FOUND section of the newsletter this year.
This should get you current:
LOST – One light blue shoe. Croc/right foot. Disappeared Sunday morning May 11th (while we were gone to church). Suspected felon – One unhappy little Pomeranian named Faith. Motive – she was mad because she was left at home. Probably in the blueberry field. $5 reward.
FOUND – Very nice pair of reading glasses. These were found in the middle of the gravel drive between the house and the barn sometime during Mayhaw season.
Recipes
I am sending out two blackberry recipes with this newsletter. Everyone wants to know how to make Blackberry Jam – so here it is. I have also included the recipe for an Old Fashion Blackberry Pie. No you don’t really have to make your own pie crust – you really can buy a pie shell from the grocery store. We won’t tell. Click HERE for recipes.
Pearce and I are looking forward to seeing all of you. I know that you are looking forward to those big, luscious berries.
See you soon….
Ann Bailey
The Berry Lady
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