News and Blog

Berry Lovers!
It's 8 AM Saturday the 26th and the gate is open. Please come pick before the rain gets here. We'll be open til 12 today unless it starts to rain more than a sprinkle. We have lots of nice raspberries!
John & Karen
Qualla Berry Farm

Today I was out in the sunshine picking giant sweet raspberries and so excited because enough were ripe for the upick to open successfully.  Then the rain came again so lots of beautiful berries will again go to mush and John heard there is a 90% chance of rain on Saturday. 

Also, my friend Kara is having a healthy potluck at The Market tomorrow evening and Linda Allen and friends are playing music there from 6 to 8:00.  I will attempt to post more information tomorrow.

Dear Berry Lovers-
Unfortunately it has rained all week and the raspberries are still painfully late in ripening. We are reluctantly postponing our U-Pick opening for Saturday Sept 19th because there are just not enough berries ready.
We will watch things this week and hope for some sunshine and with any luck we will be open on the 26th.
Thanks,
John & Karen
Qualla Berry farm

Our berries are unusually late in coming on this fall, possibly due to the cooler and wetter past month. We will not have enough ripe berries ready by this Saturday Sept 12. As a result, we are postponing our opening for the first U-Pick of the season until Sat Sept 19.

The berries when they come will be a very heavy crop. This is the latest ripening we have seen for a September season. Thanks for your understanding,

John & Karen

Dear Berry Lovers:

With the regular rains this year our berry canes are very strong and the raspberries are about to ripen. We expect to be open for U-Pick, weather permitting, on the following Saturday mornings in September: the 12th, 19th, and 26th. We will send out email confirmation before each opening. If you receive this blog entry by email you are current on our list. If not, you can sign up through the website at www.quallaberryfarm.com

Thanks!

John & Karen

Qualla Berry Farm

3274 Qualla Rd

Hayesville, NC 28904

Our June U-Pick Raspberry season has come to an end. We had one of our best seasons ever due to good rains this spring and good ripening conditions. We hope everyone who picked is enjoying their berries.
The primocanes, which are the new growth, are coming on now will be blooming in August and producing ripe berries by mid-September. We will send out a picking update email and post dates on our website calendar when we know better how things look for the fall.
If you are receiving this email you are current on our amiling list. If you know anybody who didn't get it but would like to get updates please ask them to add their email address though the website.
Thanks again to everyone! It is always fun to meet all of you and appreciate this delicious and healthy fruit together...
John and Karen
Qualla Berry Farm
www,quallaberryfarm.com

Raspberry U-Pick Saturdays June 20 and 27, 9AM til 12 noon. Lots of berries on the brambles!
John & Karen

Berry Lovers!

With all the rain our berries are in really good shape and very productive this year. They are all weeded and mulched and the berries are starting to ripen.

Barring changes due to weather we expect to be open for picking on Saturdays June 13, 20, and 27 from 9AM till noon. There may be other weekday picking hours too; we will keep you posted.

We will also have a number of vigorous new raspberry plants for sale at $5/pot.

Due to an April frost, we will not have enough sour cherries to sell this year. There may be some early blueberries ready overlapping with the raspberry picking dates. The asian pears got hit by the frost too.

But it looks like a good raspberry year and we'll look forward to seeing pickers the next few Saturdays.

Fruitfully,
John Clarke & Karen Hurtubise
Qualla Berry Farm
3274 Quallla Rd
Hayesville, NC 28904
828-389-3551
jkqualla@verizon.net

John and David just finished weeding so we are already mulched and now are digging plants for potting up to sell at the upick and farmers markets.  Bees are busy pollinating the raspberry flowers and the wet weather and cool spring after that blast of heat has been helpful.  Plants are looking happy and it looks like a good crop.  Our strawberries are not strong enough for a upick but I may sell some at the farmers market if I am organized and the slugs dont take our crop.  Mulberry tree has green dangly fruit and cherries are green and prolific.  I am planting our regular garden veggies and flowers and experimenting with gooseberries and currants at our Georgia property where the Ribes family is legal to plant. We lost some blueberries in the last freeze but will have a gracious plenty, just not like last year which was super abundant.  All is well and it looks like mid-June will be a good raspberry picking time. 

  I am teaching a Folk School class in Organic Gardening this August 2009 and will be teaching about fall/winter gardening and growing berries also.  Contact the John Campbell Folk school if you are at all interested.  We will be preparing beds for fall and winter greens, sowing seeds for perennial herbs and flowers, dividing bulbs, and sowing cover crops. Late summer has lots of wonderful food to be harvested, planted and grown throughout the winter.  There is also a June 7th-12th permaculture class with Chcuc Marshall and another class on creating wild plant sanctuaries with Jennifer Cordier the same week.  Go to www.folkschool.org for more information on the many wonderful classes in gardening being offered, as well as all their great craft courses.  My friend stayed for two different weeks and had such fun and learned a lot about kaleidoscopes and then making amazing colored clays.  So much to do in this world.  Hope everyone is enjoying the season and we will see you soon.