If you would like to be added to our email list please contact us . Typically the newsletter will be short and come out weekly during the harvest season [June to August] to let you what is happening. It also comes out once or twice in off season.

Opening Day - Wed June 12!

Blackberries - We are now forecasting Wednesday June 12, 2013 for blackberries. They are starting to show a little color so I am pretty firm on this date. The first variety will be Natchez. It is thornless. I have also noticed a few shiners in the Kiowa blackberries.

Blueberries – I believe they should be ready about June 25, 2013. In previous years we have started on June 15.

The ample moisture this spring has meant there has not been any stress during cell division and first swell… and we are looking at some really big berries in both the black and the blue berries. The challenge this year has been to keep up with the grass and the weeds.

We are guessing that the seedless table grapes will start in mid July. Figs will be August 1 and we have not seen that date change in all the years we have been growing figs. The same can be said of the muscadines…mid August for them.

For those of you worried about global climate destabilization like us, we have added an electric car charger for plug-in electric cars. Initially there will be no charge until we see what our costs are. We have also added a bicycle rack for those that are going really low carbon. We see it as the responsibility of farmers to sequester more carbon than we use in growing the crop- including fuel use, and the fossil fuel used in making fertilizer, the nitrous oxides (a global warming gas) formed with fertilizer mineralization and other carbon supplements. To this end we are switching to using winter annual legumes to fix nitrogen and cycle other nutrients and adding pine trees in east-west rows to increase the depth of carbon fixation. The sun goes over east-west so there will be less impact of shade.

We have been lucky enough to get several more acres of land that adjoins us so we are over 21 acres now. Perhaps you have noticed us clearing land when you come down the drive way. We are happy to report that our test planting of seedless persimmons (Izu) is doing well. We have also planted olive trees. The varieties are Mission, Ascolana and Pendolina. We observed fruit rachises this year on May 10 and flowers on May 22, 2013. The jury is still out on whether we can do it but… nothing ventured, nothing gained.

Our summer employees this summer will be Nathan Melcher a rising sophomore at Clemson, Lukas Korbelik an intern from the Czech Republic, Tommy Delloroso and Jessica Pilgrim recent graduates from High School and Ruth Rollins. Ruth and Tommy were with us in 2012.

Thank you for your support! See you at the farm! Walker for The Happy Berry Bunch

DECORATIVE WILLOWS AND FLORALS
- SEASON ALMOST GONE!

Greetings from The Happy Berry!

Open Saturday April 13, 11 AM to 3 PM for willows
Willows with catkins season (wording is this way to keep the spam blockers from preventing the newsletter from getting to you) is nearing the end. We are harvesting the Easter willows now (I guess they did not get the bulletin that Easter was early this year). They are gorgeous this year! We still have lots of beautiful Silvers, some red curly, yellow and red stick dogwood, Dragon tails, and prairie willow. It is not too late to root your own and we have lots of already rooted willows.

Saturday April 20
The Pickens Azalea festival will be Saturday April 20, 9:30 until dark. We will be in booth number 206 between the TD Bank and Bank America. We will have lots of willows for sale. It is the end of the season… Come find us and “Let’s Make A Deal!.

Strawberries:
You need to start thinking strawberries but remember we do not do strawberries. I (Walker) will try to update our strawberry grower list and get back to you. Last year’s list is in our old newsletter from last year at about this time.

Blackberries Forecast June 1

Blueberries Forecast June 15

News From the Fields:
The Last 10 days of March were really scary! We had an advective freeze (wind does not die down) early AM on March 21 (All open flowers were killed but fortunately not many were open) and a radiational freeze the morning of March 22. Radiational freezes are the worse! Emerging flowers can usually tolerate about 28 degrees. During a radiational freeze (no wind) the flowers super cool to the dew point and we were having dew points in the low to middle teens. Yikes! During radiational freezes we ran our wind machine (generates wind) to prevent supper cooling. Then after a rainy weekend and Monday we had another advective freeze early Tuesday morning the 26 of March (fortunately the flowers did not develop much) and then for three nights in a row we radiational freezes through Friday morning the 29 of March all with very low dewpoints. The last two days finally went out “like a lamb.” And it has been warm ever since. It appears that we were successful and prevented super cooling. More later! It generally cost about $375 a night to run the wind machine not counting my time but we saved the crop!

Blueberry pruning is done! Grape pruning is done! We are doing the muscadines now. We had tree fall on the muscadine trellis and termites ate a few of our treated posts…the trellises have been repaired. We hope to be to finish the muscadines and start the figs by the time you read this on Friday April 12. We are running late. Not to worry that we have not mentioned the blackberry pruning - the blackberries were done last summer (better because it removes disease inoculum and gives the primocanes time to heal before winter).

Infrastructure work is next on the agenda. – Don’t forget we have an electric charger for anyone who drives electric cars. Spread the word!

We are looking forward to a great season with you!
Walker for The Happy Berry/Mountain Willow Bunch

DECORATIVE WILLOWS AND FLORALS
- SEASON BEGINS

If we are not at a weekend show we will be open at the farm on Saturdays from 11 AM until 3 PM. Of course if you call ahead we will meet you any time its daylight except on Sunday morning before noon.

Our first show is the Annual Remodeling Expo, January 11 to 13, at the TD Convention Center in Greenville. (Note that this means we will not be open on the farm Sat Jan 12 since we will be at the show.)

We will also be at regional home and garden shows in Anderson February 8 to 10 and Greenville March 1 to 3. (Note that this means we will not be open on the farm on Saturday Feb 9 or Saturday March 2, since we will be at the shows.)

From now through the first week of April if you need a program for your Garden Club, regional meetings or other gatherings we would love to give a program on Decorative Willows and Florals… The speaker would be Walker “Mr Willow II.” Just give us a buzz at 864 350 9345 or email us (walker@thehappyberry.com) and we will set it up! Due to logistics we require an audience of 20.

The beautiful Silvers are doing it! As we say in the willow trade “they are popping!” The male catkin, which if carefully pushed, will get to be an inch or more. At The Happy Berry/Mountain Willow we cut them just as the shucks split or pops off. They are very difficult to handle if you let them go further. It then is up to the customer if they want to push them to a larger size. It is easily done- But…be careful …If you push to hard and are not watching, they will bloom (the male anthers will emerge, usually yellow in color) and drop off the stem. Many customers just pinch the shucks off and make a dried arrangement immediately. We know of arrangements that are 10 years old and still look great.

Pussy Willows grow well here in USDA Zone 8a and as a plus there are no female trees around, so seeds and progeny are not a problem. Of course if you want, we will teach you how to grow-your-own…but you are in control! And you can put them where you want them not where a seed happens to fall. Ask us for cutting wood and instructions. To our knowledge we are the only producer in South Carolina so we are not worried about competition. In fact we will prune your tree for the stems, if you are reasonably close.

That brings up the issue of price. We just checked on the web and we found that our prices under-cut theirs by $3 to $5 or more for the 3-4 footers. Plus you have to pay shipping. In addition if you want 5 feet or 6 feet, no problem for us. If you would like really big ones 9, 10 or more feet let us know and we will special cut them for you and have them waiting for pick up. Our price for 3-4 feet with 12 stems per bunch is $12 or two for $20. If you would like us to mix in 3 red curly stem it is just $15 or 3 green curly for $14.

So we also have Red and Green Curly’s and Purple Heirloom that are ready to pop but have not done it in the field but will if you force just a little. Japanese Fantails have just few shucks splitting so they are ready for selective cutting. We will have a very limited supply of Sir Harry Lauder Walking Stick at $3 per stem.

PRUNING- come learn with us!
We are within 3 and 1/2 rows of finishing the “tying up” process in the blackberries. Except when we are cutting willows we will be spending full time pruning the blueberries. The Muscadines will follow the blueberries and the grapes after that and the figs last. So if you have blueberries in your yard now is the time to start. If you want lessons come see us and in exchange for pruning a few of ours we will teach how to prune yours.

ELECTRIC CAR CHARGER!
We purchased and are in the throws of adding to our parking an electric car charger with infrastructure to add 3 more if the use warrants it. Initially we plan on it being free until we get a handle on cost. “First blush” back of the envelop figuring, suggests it will be worth it, if it means the difference in the customer coming or not.

THANK YOU FOR A GREAT 2012!
It is Official - 2012 was our best season ever! That circumstance has been true since 2007! The bushes look great. The wind machine is fixed. Good rain this summer of 2012 set a great crop of branches and fruit buds…So 2013 looks very promising. We keep waiting for the axe to fall…But are going after it like it will not happen.

Any questions … let us know. If it is generic we will include it in our next newsletter …otherwise a personal response to the best of our ability.

Happy Farming!
Walker for The Happy Berry/Mountain Willow Bunch

The Happy Berry, Inc.
Mailing Address Only: 120 Kelley Creek Road
Farm Address-No Mail Receptacle: 510 Gap Hill Road
Six Mile, SC 29682
Phone: (864) 868-2946
Farm: (864) 350-9345
Email: ContactUs@TheHappyBerry.com