Operation Corn Maze 2011

Before last year, I had never been to a corn maze. I grew up in the country. I could run around in the corn all day long for free. Why was my mom going to pay for that? My Uncle Pat and Aunt Patricia probably wished I hadn't. One year a friend and I got the great idea to go in and flatten part of it, you know, like a crop circle. We were making a 'house'. I think I was like eight. Yeah, that went over well. (Now that I'm on the other side of the dilemma I'm surprised I wasn't strangled, 'cause some of these kids who like to ride four wheelers through our crops, yes I mean right down the middle of the feild ruining it like they have no sense of common decency or manners, yeah I'd like to pinch their heads off sometimes.) Ever since then I stopped making corn houses.

The corn maze however gives me that opportunity again. Last year was our first one and I think we did alright for a couple of folks that had absolutely no clue of what they were doing. If not for the help of our awesome family and friends and the best first employee ever, the Hayride Driver aka Red Robin, we would have never made it. This year we're really excited to get the ball rolling on our next maze (and we'll be excited until after the first weekend when we're so tired we can't move and then we'll think, is Nov. here yet? Everyone thinks it's easy to cut a path in some corn and take money, and it is a sweet gig because we have so much fun doing it, but it is a lot of work and effort and long hours.) We're in the planning stages of operation Corn Maze 2011. It's going to be different this year. I'm on a personal mission to be more organized and less messy. I've even drawn up a map.

One of the new things I want to do this year is punkin' chunkin'. I'm super excited about this. Not exactly sure how we're gonna pull it off, but essentially it will be a slingshot of some kind and you will just put the pumpkin in, pull back hard as you can, and let 'er fly. I think it sounds like a lot of fun. I don't think the Husband's too excited about it, but I'm determined to do it. It'll give the adults something to do and the kids something to watch and I think it's awesome.

We're going to do the maze a little differently this year. We want to have the Haunted Maze separate, so we can kind of ramp that up, add some more things, make it scarier. It's going to be about 4 acres, the size of our maze last year. The regular maze will be about 10 acres and we're going to have a design cut in it and hopefuly a scavenger hunt of some kind (haven't quite decided how I'm gonna do that yet, if you have suggestions, fell free to let me know).

Another new thing this year is the corn crib. I'm sure anyone whose been to Hill Ridge Farms has seen this, it's basically a sandbox filled with corn. A lot less messy for parents and something even the little ones can enjoy. Also for little ones, I want to do a straw maze this year, something smaller, more on their size that they can play around in without getting completely lost.

I spent last week updating our website (that's a whole other blog for a whole other time, maybe next week :)) for those groups who are already trying to plan fall activities. I know it's only July and you think it's not that far but we will be opening Sept. 17, which is only two and a half months away. If you have a group you think would like to come please check out the site, give me a call, shoot me an e-mail or message on Facebook. I'd love to talk to you about pricing and options. We had a lot of groups come out last year, some on the weekends, some during the week, and I think they had a lot of fun based on the responses I got.

So check us out, keep us in mind. I'll be at Micro VFD July 31 10-3 for their Christmas in July Show, signing autographs, er, I mean selling jams, blueberry and strawberry and apple, and giving away coupons to the maze with purchase so come out and support a good cause and get some great jam. We love to have groups of all shapes and sizes, don't think because you're groups not 30 strong we don't want you. We love to see kids out there having fun on our creations. And if you have any suggestions, something we didn't do right last year, something you'd like to see or do on the farm let me know.  We'd love to hear from you!

Bowing Out

Ah, when to the heart of man

Was it ever less than a treason

To go with the drift of things,

To yield with a grace to reason,

And bow and accept the end

Of a love or a season?

Okay, so maybe it's not dramatic as all that.  I doubt Frost was talking about strawberries in this poem but I love Frost and it is the end of strawberry season so it kinda goes right? 

The end is finally here.  All the battles meant nothing, this is the end, the epic showdown, the part where the valiant but flawed superhero meets the enemy twice his size and more powerful, and defeats him because he has the one thing the enemy will never have, usually love or something.  Well, this superhero story doesn't quite follow that mold because it is just me, little 'ole berry girl vs. mother nature.  Somehow I don't think all the tricks in my book are going to be able to win against 90 degree heat and humidity.

We've known this day was coming for a couple of weeks now.  When a strawberry plant endures stress, whether it's disease or hot temps or not enough water, they begin to send out runners.  We've been seeing those for quite a while now.  Some of them are even bigger and better looking than the plants.  Too bad they won't produce fruit.  Some of our plants stopped producing last week.  The berry size is getting smaller, some of the smaller ones are drying up, the blooms are burned on the edges.  It's too hot for people to come pick (and I don't blame you.  I picked some last week and let me tell you, NEVER again.  It was hot, and like the strawberry I don't do well in the blazing heat.  The Boy kept complaining about flies and mud and being hot and you name it.  Then there was all that up and down, up and down.  I believe I'd rather take out a barn of tobacco than pick and you can ask my Aunt Patricia, I wasn't so keen on that either.)

Everyone's pet peeve, dry berries

Those pesky bugs.

Nice healthy runners.

We've been irrigating them and fertilizing them under the plastic, but that won't even knock a dent in a 90 degree day.  If the air temps 90, its about 100 on that black plastic.  We can irrigate them overhead to cool them off (the idea being that the process of the water evaporating off the berries cools them down) but that's an involved process of watering them every twenty minutes or so for twenty minutes and at this point in the season we don't see the economics of it. 

And too, we've started to see more insect damage.  They like to burrow in the berries and lay their eggs (it's a rude awakening to cut into a berry and find it full of worms), eat the berries, and eat the leaves.  We can spray them, but that poses potential harm to pickers so we'd rather not worry about it. 

So we just decided to throw in the towel and let mother nature do it's thing and we'll quit while we're ahead so we can be back next year.  We've really enjoyed having the strawberries and we've enjoyed having y'all come out to the farm and pick.  We'll be starting our next crop in August, so don't worry, I will still have adventures to post even though we aren't open.  Next up for us is our corn maze (which I am super, super excited about).  I have some awesome new activities planned (did anyone say punkin' chunkin'? :)) So stay tuned to watch berry girl conquer fall!

A little bit of this, a little bit of that

I apologize for being a slack blogger the last couple of weeks.  Originally I intended to do this once a week.  That was a great plan until we actually started selling berries.  Now when we close up and I'm home I am so dead tired I've actually been going to bed around ten or eleven like a normal person.  The other day my back hurt so much from carrying berries that I had to take Ibuprofen to get moving the next morning (The Husband turned thirty Sunday as if I needed another reason to realize that I am starting to get old!)  Let me catch you up on the last two weeks.

The Mon and Tues after we opened, we had the pleasure of hosting the Kindergarten from Northwest Elem.  There were a total of 155 kids split over those two days (yes you read that right, 155!!!).  Luckily it was all hands on deck around here.  I had my wonderful employees, Michelle, Amy, and Tiffanie here, oh and The Husband (almost forgot!) was here to help me.  Thankfully there were no bus-sliding-into-the-ditch disasters, the kids all seemed to have a great time, I had enough ice cream and coloring books, and they seemed to think my strawberry lesson was a little fun (only because I let them plant strawberry plants, so they all got to get their hands dirty.  I assure you it wasn't my stunning educational skills on display.)  The only problems really were that a couple of the kids were allergic to eggs (which we solved by giving them honey straws instead) and a logistical problem with the ice cream (someone had to run up to my house and get it from the freezer, since I currently do not have electricity at The Stand, I cannot run a freezer there).  All in all we had a great time and I really loved seeing the kids get excited about picking berries. 

I have to say I am a little surprised at the number of you-pickers we have had.  Not ever having done this (I've never even picked strawberries before I owned a farm), I never realized how much people enjoy picking berries.  Hey, I think it's awesome.  I love the sound the cap makes when it separates from the vine.  That little pop just sounds neat to me.  And yes, it's perfectly okay to eat some in the field.  I love it when people come to The Stand with sheepish grins on their faces and strawberry juice on their shirt.  We understand and accept that yes, you are going to eat while you pick (The Husband probably eats a half a flat everyday straight from the field.)  I promise we don't have scales in the field to weigh you coming in and out and scanners for strawberry seeds in your teeth at The Stand (yet anyway :)). 

This past week has been a week of problems.  First it rains Tues, Wed, and Thurs, so that we weren't able to be open Tues and Wed afternoon or Thurs all day.  That week also happened to fall about three-four weeks from the big frost, so our berry production was in a lull.  When it frosted, we saved the fruit, but we lost some of our blooms.  Approximately 28 days later and voila, lull in production.  Unfortunately that meant we had to shut down the you pick, and then because it rained we weren't even able to pick some to sell, so we had to close Thurs.  I apologize greatly if you were one who wanted to come during this time and were disappointed.  Trust me, we were just as disappointed that we had to close as you were for us to be.  Hopefully we won't have any more lulls like that. 

We have high hopes for a better week this week.  I'm thinking we may have to open a little late Wed morning, but if that's the only problem then bring it on.  We need the rain.  Hopefully all other types of weather will stay away.  I see the destruction in Alabama and think, man we dodged another bullet.  We're having a treasure hunt for Mother's Day on Saturday.  This was an idea I picked up while perusing a comrade in arms website (yes, not only do I scope out their prices, I scope them out for good ideas for things to do at the farm.  The Berry Girl is always on the hunt for a great idea).  They hide little things like earrings and gift cards in the berries and while people pick they come across the goodies.  I'm really excited about it and I hope some of you decide to take us up on the offer (if not I know what I'm giving out for Christmas and birthdays this year). 

Next weekend I really want to do something for military appreciation and I was hoping to donate a percentage of the profits to a charity/association that does something to help local military families.  We appreciate our military and we love having them come out to the farm.  We would like to give something back to the community to let them know that we appreciate all they do.  If anyone knows of such an organization please let me know.  So far I have come up empty.  I don't know how much the ultimate amount will be, hopefully it will be decent if we can get some good support for this, but giving back to my community means a lot to me and I really want to do this, not only with the military but other great causes as well. You have all helped and continue to help support us, we want to let you know how much we appreciate it!

Oh, and as a sort of update or PS, that mortal enemy is back plaguing our feild.  Yes, the deer have realized there is tasty sweet deliciousness in the field.  Everyday I see new tracks in the field and yes, I get extremely peeved.  The Husband sneaks (he slams the door and stands down wind) out with the rifle in the attempt to shoot them off (it's more like scare them off, his aim isn't exactly what it needs to be to actually shoot them).  It works for about five minutes and then I'm sure they're out there sampling the buffet that we apparently planted just for them.  The sweet potato beds are beginning to fill in so now they will have their choice between juicy berries or sweet tender leaves.  Hmmmm...decisions, decisions.

D-Day

So we've hired and we've advertised and we've fought the mortal enemies and the fickle foes and now comes the big test.  Now comes the big test.  It's finally here.  D-Day.

Last week I ran missions preparing the farm for opening day.  Thursday I went to Southern Container to get some pulp quarts and pint clamshells to put berries in.  Friday I spent all day on the road to Greensboro to Lewis Shipping Company to pick up flats from Mid-Carolina Packaging and to Hillsborough to pick up buckets and ice cream from Maple View Farm Dairy.  Not to mention the various errands around Goldsboro to get signs, pay for advertising, buy miscellaneous supplies, etc.  The Boy and I were on the road pretty much all last week. 

Finally it arrives, the day we've all been preparing for, Saturday April 16 2011, D-Day.  We knew all week they were predicting awful weather (remember, I'm a weather geek).  I wake up that morning around six thirty to you-pickers waiting on me.  I run out the door without even my phone in a rush to get there and let them pick.  My scale wasn't even out of the box.  My help arrives, Tiffanie and Keith (aka Red Robbin the hayride driver) and we get started folding flats and whipping the place into shape while the wind whips us into shape.  The bee man comes and we get an up close and personal look at the hive (this was super neat, even though the smoke smelled awful that they use to subdue them and the sight of all those stinging creatures buzzing around me and crawling around did give me the heebies, I persevered, got within a foot of them, and got some nice pictures, even one of the queen!)  All the while I've got the National Weather Service pulled up on my phone and we're watching the clouds just boil knowing something big is coming.  Saturday also happens to be my mom's fiftieth birthday (my mom is the best mom ever, without her and my mother in law I wouldn't be able to get half the things done I do) and my dad has planned a party for her.  So The Boy and I leave The husband, Tiffanie, and Red Robbin to it and go celebrate.  As I'm sitting there letting my food digest (in THE most comfortable chair ever.  I don't know where Uncle Pat got it but it's a-mazing.  He says he's going to use it to hunt in, I think he'll be doing more sleeping than hunting) I pull up the radar to see the line of storms at around the Greensboro mark.  The entire line is filled with tornado and severe thunderstorm warnings.  That's when I knew that this was for real.  Normally when the meteorologists on TV go crazy about severe weather it turns out to be nothing really, it's when they don't talk about it that it's bad.  This time they got it right.

All Hail the Queen!  She's the one at the top right corner of the knife.  She is all golden colored and has a longer abdomen from the others.

Creepy Clouds

Opening day U-Pickers

I get back to The Stand and we have some pickers who couldn't make it to the air show.  I'm watching the radar constantly.  When it gets to the Johnston county line and we start getting thunder, Tiffanie and I give up and pack up The Stand.  The Husband and I are freaking out because we just know we're going to get hail at least.  Strawberry slush anyone?  We've already resigned ourselves we will.  Power goes out before the storm hits and our phones are dying (that's the problem with smart phones, especially my Droid.  I can't use it a full day and it hold a charge.  I love it, but I'm glad I invested in a car charger).  The storm hits out of nowhere and the wind and rain are so bad I can't see out of my windows.  I'm staring at the ground, looking for the inevitable menace, those horrible little white balls of ice, hail.  Miraculously, I see none.

So this was how our season opened.  The next day we had no electricity at our house and they closed our road for no reason at all.  Like I said in an earlier blog, everything that can go wrong will, and it will, but we were so fortunate that we didn't get the worst.  Some of our fellow strawberry farmers in the county lost their entire crop, and that's nothing to the poor folks who lost everything.  My heart goes out to them all, and every time I look at our berries and my unscathed house I get goose bumps thinking about how fortunate we really were.   

Spy Games

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mWGeRgFa-hI

The soundtrack above for today's blog says it all.  My mission for yesterday, should I have chosen to accept it, was to investigate the competition in order to perform a price and quality comparison.

As some of you know, our berry patch is opening for business this week.  I spent yesterday morning fulfilling my duties as vice president of part running (I do have to throw a shout out to Durand of Auto Parts & Supply of Princeton.  The Boy was absolutely thrilled to be in a parts store as usual and as I was checking out Durand gave him a little paper bag of Tootsie Rolls and a Hot Wheels Car.  It's yet another reason to patronize an independent retailer :)) and yesterday afternoon I fulfilled my duties as President of Two Mule Farms (it sounds way more important than it really is).  I made phone calls and when The Boy awoke from his seista, we went and ordered shirts and signs for the farm.  Then, I got the call, "an unnamed competitor (I'd tell you the name but then I'd have to kill you) has set up around town today, why don't you go and see how much they are charging?"  I accepted the mission before it could self-destruct.  Time for me to fulfill my duties as Berry Girl (my third career change of the day) and run reconaissance on the competition.

The Boy and I went incognito as just a normal mom and kid.  I wore normal everyday clothes, he had on his Bass Pro Shop t-shirt.  I disguised my face with dark sunglasses.  We drove out to a location I knew they had a small u-pick patch on sight in order for me to get the most information possible.  Once we arrived I realized I had caught the stand attendant off guard (ha!).  She didn't have time to get out of her car before I could sneak up to the stand.  It was completely full of berries.  I nonchalantly asked her the price.  I decided to buy what they call a flat to bring it back to the lair and study it.  I wanted to run tests to see how much it weighs and how does it fit into one of our buskets.  I wanted to see how many quarts are in it.  I asked her about the u-pick.  Once I have gathered the necessary surveillance I safely return to my vehicle and return to the lair to report on my mission.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not out on a vendetta against my competition.  I really have nothing but hope for success in my heart for all my local comrades in arms.  I believe there is plenty of business for all of us.  We've sold plants to them, we talk to them to see how their farms are coming.  We believe that by working together we can get further than engaging in a capitalistic blood sport over berry business.  However, the unnamed competitor I am speaking of is not really a local operation so I do not feel the least bit guilty for scoping them out.  The object of my mission was really just to make sure our prices are in line with what the rest of the county has.  I have no doubt that they have absolutely no idea who we are, and if they did they couldn't possibly consider our little farm competition.   

So what where the results of my mission?  I believe we may change the sizes in which we sell our berries.  We may move to the smaller flats and not even have the busket size we had last year.  This change is mainly due to how much easier it will be for us to handle.  The flats will stack easier, and it will be less overhead for us to not have to buy the buskets which do not stack.  Plus, it will be more efficent since we can pick them straight into the flats and not have to move the berries in the buskets (I'm always looking for smarter ways to do something), which will cut down on time and bruises to the berries.  This is still in a planning stage, as I have yet to purchase these flats, but I am pretty sure we will be moving to those, if not this weekend then next week for sure. 

Don't forget that we'll be open on Saturday!  Come check us out!

Y'all Come Back Now, Ya Here!

I remember the night we decided to open our farm up for agritourism (this is the part in the superhero movies where the audience learns of how the hero came to be 'super'; imagine a faded out image of this conversation with my voice narrating as a voice-over)  So, The Husband had decided to do the strawberry gig and he went to his first NC Strawberry Association conference (check out their webiste for some good information, recipes, and farm listings if you live too far to come to ours http://www.ncstrawberry.org/).  He came back choc full of information that I paid no attention to whatsoever.  Then he was talking about how a lot of these growers also do corn mazes in the fall.  He seemed excited about the idea so I said to him, well, if we're able to buy your grandma's farm, why don't we do a corn maze.  He looked at me like he couldn't believe the words that had just come out of my mouth.  I asked him if he thought that was stupid and he said he just never thought I'd want to do it.  From this conversation, Two Mule Farms was born.


One thing I figured out quickly was saying you want to run an agritourism farm and actually running it are two different things.  I learned from last fall was if it is going to go wrong it will.  We had bonfires that wouldn't light, straw that got wet, tractor batteries that died (this was a result of me learning how to drive one, yeah, that worked out well), school busses that ended up in the ditch, you name it, it went wrong.  Another thing I learned was that someone's gotta be the boss, and that someone is me.  I'm not a naturally bossy person, not a natural leader, so this is a continuing struggle for me personally, but sometimes you just have to put your big girl panties on and take over.  The most important thing I learned last fall was that I have some really incredible family and friends who stepped in when we needed it most, either helping us bodily on the farm, watching The Boy, or just giving us great advice. 


So, now we're coming into a new season.  We'll have berries in about a week (YIKES!!!) and I'm freaking out.  I have supplies to get, things to order, prices to work out (yes, my name is Emily and I am a procrastinator.  Procrastination is the root of all evil, I'm tellin' you).  We're trying to get the farm ready; we're ditching water, moved the stand for better parking, filling in holes and expanding the driveway so no more busses will end up in the ditch.  I'm trying to implement the things I've learned.  I’m trying not to stress, everything that can go wrong will.  Once I accept it and move on I can take it as it comes (yeah, still working on this one).  I’m trying to be the boss (another one easier said than done).  I have hired some great girls to work in the stand and in the field to free me up so I can make sure everyone has what they need.  Also, I can't forget my other job as errand runner extraordinaire.  Plus, we're going to be getting ice cream from Maple View Farms so I'll have to be running back and forth from Raleigh (hopefully a lot!).  Hopefully this will let me be free to handle those inevitable problems as they come up.


One thing about this quest I have embarked on that has genuinely surprised me is how much fun it is.  I really like having people come out on the farm and have fun.  Nothing makes me happier than seeing little kids running around playing like I used to do when I was younger.  Of course I want to make money doing this, I wouldn't be doing it otherwise.  Honestly though, I get so much more from just having people come out and have fun that that becomes a secondary purpose.  I feel more like I'm hosting a big party at the farm rather than working and that's what I love about it.  When people come, I want them to feel like they're coming to some relative's house for a reunion (just without the covered dish, that one great aunt that pinches your cheek, and the cousin Eddie type, 'cause you know everyone's got one of them stashed away on the family tree that you're hoping no one will realize you're related too).  So please consider this your formal invitation to come hang out with us.  I'm going to be having events here on the weekends, doing some fundraising for cancer research, treasure hunts for mothers day, military appreication.  Come and get a cup of ice cream and hang out in the shade in the picnic area or bring your kids to pick some berries and maybe find a nice surprise for yourself on mothers day weekend.  Or, if nothing else, just come laugh at the latest screw up, there's bound to be a lot of them.  We'd love to have you out, no matter the reason!

Walking in a Winter Wonderland

I've always been a bit of a weather nerd.  Okay, a bit is exaggerating.  I loved it, still do.  For a long time when I was little I wanted to be a meteorologist.  I checked out weather books in the library, especially about tornadoes. I was obsessed.  I think part of what drew me was that if I knew everything I could, I could protect myself from them.  I could help my family get to safety.  I would know what to do.  Whenever they predict us having bad storms and the like I'm glued to my computer, checking out my favorite websites and animating radars, trying to predict where the storms are going to go.  I go outside and look at the clouds and see how they're moving.  I always thought it would be the big storms that posed the greatest threat.  I never thought a calm clear night would really be my biggest worry.


It's on those cold clear nights when that dreaded enemy creeps up on you.  It's been lurking in our minds all year.  All spring it's been nice and warm and misleading.  We knew the shoe was going to drop sometime, but we hoped it wouldn't.  These last two nights it did.  These last two night the beautiful weather betrayed us.  These last two nights, it frosted.  (Insert ominous dum, dum, dum).


We started working on this Sunday.  We had everything planned out.  The Husband set up the overheard irrigation.  He and I put out row covers at the end that the water didn't reach well (yeah, that was fun.  The middles were full of water from Sat. night's rain and what was dry was slippery shoe sucking mud.  I have no balance, and I'm trying to pull cumbersome wet row covers over these plants without punching holes in the plastic or stomping on a berry plant accidentally, all while The Boy is whining because his hands are cold and The Husband is whining because I'm slow.  I told him he'd rather me be out here and slow than covered in mud and leaving when I fall down.  He shut up.) We stayed up late waiting to watch the weather (well it was late for him, and for me incidentally since Sat. night we were celebrating Lynette Howell's 21st birthday :)).  Of course all they could talk about was snow near the border.  All day I was on the net, checking out forecasts.  We subscribe to a service called Berry Alerts (through strawberryweather.com for any grower happening to read this) that sends us information about the weather and frosts and where they think it will.  From everything we gathered, no frost.  It was going to be cloudy which of course keeps temps up because the air is trapped under the clouds, and windy which wouldn't allow the frost to settle anyway.

Night One.  We set the alarm for two.  No change.  We set the alarm for four.  Big change.  It was clear and a low of 33 with 31 in some places and a north wind of 2.  The Husband gets up to check out the field and cut on the pump.  There was frost on some of the irrigation lines and a little light frost on some leaves.  I get on the Internet and monitor the temps.  The clouds roll back in around five thirty and we decide after looking at the forecasts it probably won't get colder and stop the irrigation.  The water is not freezing on the plants, so we take that as a good sign.  Yesterday I spend my afternoon slipping and sliding and sinking in six inch deep mud ditching out the middles (fun times!).

Shoe sucking mud



The Husband's solution to shoe sucking mud.
Cutoff waders.

Night Two.  Tonight, we have our game faces on, they're predicting 29 at the NWS, it's going to frost.  I make The Husband get a nap while I stay up to monitor conditions.  At eleven I see it's down to thirty six.  This is the magic number.  So I suit up and walk the field looking for signs of frost.  There's frost on the grass in the middles, but due to the black plastic we've planted the strawberries in the dew on their leaves has not yet frozen.  If I could have cranked the irrigation pump I would have, however, since I cannot, I have to leave the task coating the berry plants with ice to The Husband.  We start at 12 and after some minor issues (at one point he comes in soaking wet because he had to change a nozzle.  I have to try real hard not to laugh at that mental image) ice starts forming around four.  By six thirty when the sun begins to rise and things begin to warm the plants are coated in ice, making the field a winter wonderland.  I have a feeling I'll be ditching more today.

We're crossing our fingers for no more cold weather like last night for the rest of the season, but you can never be sure.  I remember once when I was younger it snowing in April.  The Husband doesn't like me to mention that.  We're thinking right now that we were able to save most of the blooms and berries we have on the plant now, and as far as I know we're still hoping to have berries in 2 1/2 - 3 weeks.  Hopefully.