Spring Has Sprung!
 
I know that Spring is now here…. I looked at the 10 day weather forecast and there is not any cold weather and several days of rain. Yeh! I worked in my garden this for a while this morning. I have lettuce, radishes, carrots, spinach, onions, beets and asparagus growing right now. I will add my green beans, melons, tomatoes and peppers on Good Friday. I also have a wonderful herb bed already planted – even though there are not many of them up yet. Pearce doesn’t like squash or cucumbers – so I will buy whatever I want of those at the grocery store. By the way, I am going to add the recipe for his favorite pickles to this newsletter.
 We are having our gardening program on March 28. If you would like to be part of it, please call me or email me. We will start with the basics of gardening at 10 am – break for lunch from 12 pm for about 30 minutes and then resume the afternoon for a program on herbs. The cost is $10 for an individual or $15 for a couple. Lunch will be served and the cost for the lunch is $5 per person. Ed and Ann Supina, master gardeners, and Jerry Ware, co-owner of Lavender Ridge Farms will be giving the program. Anyone coming needs to bring a pen/pencil and a note pad.
Please note this program will be held under the shelter of the barn and will therefore be held rain or shine!
In addition to the wonderful program, we will have vegetable, herb and flower plants for sale. This is a list of the herbs that we will have that day – orange mint, ginger mint, Mexican oregano, plain oregano, blonde fennel, cocoanut thyme, English thyme, mother of thyme, golden rain rosemary, trailing rosemary, pineapple sage, lemon grass, creeping germander, curry plant, grosso lavender, provence lavender, French lace lavender and dussel dorf lavender. All of the herbs will be in 1 gallon containers.
 We will have beautiful tomato plants – Early Girl, 4th of July, Celebrity, Mountain Spring, Sweet 100, Super Fantastic and Huskey Red. These will be in 4 inch pots. We will also have some of the Huskey Red in 1 gallon containers. The Huskey Red tomato is the one that you grow in pots. These large plants already have blooms and some small tomatoes and are just waiting for you to take them home.
We will have Tam jalapeño peppers, regular jalapeño peppers, cayenne peppers, serrano peppers, poblano peppers, red and yellow bell peppers and "pickling cucumbers". Check with your friends and see if they would like for you to bring some home for them. We will be open from 1pm to 4 pm on Sunday, March 29 to sell the plants that remain to those of you who aren’t able to be here the day before.
If you know that there is something that you would really like to have, call me and I will make certain that we have it here for you. I will know what is left after the Saturday gardening program is over. By the way, the 1 gallon herb plants are $7.50, the 1 gallon Huskey Red tomato plants are $4.50, the 4 inch pepper plants and cucumber plants are $1.50 and the 4 inch tomato plants are $2.50. The flower plants and baskets will vary in price based on the type of flower. You will find that all of the prices are VERY reasonable and it will be a good time to stock up. If you would like a whole flat of one type of flower, please call me and I will be able to get you a price. Also, I will know what is left after the gardening program if you want to call or email me.
 There will be a wide selection of annual flowering plants. Most of these are in 4 inch pots but we will have a number of hanging baskets and larger pots of flowers. You might want to take home several of these for Easter gifts and/or Mother’s Day gifts. Yes – you can keep them alive and thriving until May 10th.
I don’t know if you have noticed or not all of the articles in the newspapers and in magazines about home gardening. One article in our paper here reported that $50 worth of seed, in a well managed garden, would product approximately $1,250 worth of food. The new Southern Living magazine has an article on page 62 that is call “Right Out Back” and the new Better Homes and Gardens has several articles on gardening. My favorite article is on page 94 and is called "Home Grown". That article tells you how to make a raised bed garden. That is what I have and it is wonderful to work with. As you are planning your garden or as you are planning to plant your pots of vegetables and herbs, keep in mind that the most important plants will be the ones that your family really love and will use.
VERY IMPORTANT – we are not limiting the number of people who can attend this program… there will be a limit to the next two programs. If you plan to attend, please call me at (903) 564-6228 or email me at info@txberry.com.
 April 18 – Mark this date on your calendar. Joyce White with the Ag Life Extension Service of Grayson County will present a great program on how to can, preserve, pickle, dry and freeze all of the fresh fruit and vegetables that will be available soon. The program will be from 10 am to 2 pm with lunch served sometime around noon. The cost of the program is $10 per person for the program and an additional $5 per person for lunch. The class is limited to the first 25 people who sign up since we will have to hold this class in our home. You will learn the correct way to use a water bath canner, a canning pressure cooker and a food dryer. Once again, you need to either call me or email me in advance since I am certain that this program will be something that many of you will really enjoy.
 May 23 is the day that we have scheduled a very exciting cooking program. We are calling it "Beyond the Muffin – Sweet & Savory Blueberry Cuisine". The cost will be $25 per person and includes lunch. We will be eating lunch from all of the wonderful things that we are going to either have made or will be making for you. Blueberries are very versatile and can be used in everything from Blueberry Salsa to Hamburger with Blueberry Sauce. Chicken is especially good with blueberries and there are a number of easy sauce recipes that you can make for your family. This class will be limited to 25 people also. Susan Ellingburg and I will giving you all sorts of new ideas that I know that you will enjoy. You can go ahead and sign up for this class now if you plan to be here. I know that there will be a number of you who will want to be here….just keep in mind that it is a limited class.
 The blueberries and blackberries look wonderful. The blueberries are already blooming and it won’t be long before we see the first of the beautiful white blackberry blooms. Unless we get some VERY unexpected weather, the other fruit that we have available for you should be plentiful this year. The Mayhaws and Pulots were loaded with blooms and there should be a good crop.
Right now, we plan to open for blackberry picking sometime around June 1st and the first of the blueberries should be available about 10 days later. You would be amazed at how many people are already calling wanting to know if the berries are ready yet. I am going to give all of you another "heads up". Lavender Ridge Farms will have strawberries for you to pick sometime around the end of April. If you have never been to Lavender Ridge, it’s certainly worth the trip. Jerry Ware will be here for the gardening program and you can get more information from him that day. For information on Lavender Ridge, go to their web site at www.LavenderRidgeFarms.com. There is also a link to them and other great area businesses on the 'Links' page of our web site (www.TxBerry.com/links.html).
I hope that the two recipes that I am sending to you with this newsletter will get you in the mood for both the gardening program and the program on canning, etc.
The first recipe is one for Blackberry Jam (since the blackberries will be ready first) and Pearce’s favorite pickle recipe – Old South Cucumber Lime Pickles. I know that you will enjoy both of them.
Click HERE for Recipes.
If you have any questions or need to reach me either call me at (903) 564-6228 or email me at info@txberry.com.
Have a great day – and see you soon!
Ann Bailey
The Berry Lady
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