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2009-11-21

2009-11-18

2009-11-05

Agriculture

Lifestyles

Friday, September 04, 2009 10:10 PM

ASK A PROFESSIONAL: Where did all those berries come from?

By LINDA BROWN, Ask a Professional

What do you do when a neighbor’s burning gets out of control and burns off part of your 20 acres?

If you’re Ellen and Norman Mast, you look at it as a blessing and start a berry farm.

“We bought this land in 2001 and moved here in 2002,” Ellen Mast remembered. “I kept asking Norm what we could do to make it productive.”

The Mast property was heavy with Sumac and a variety of other woody plants that made it undesirable for cattle or horses. In 2005, a neighbor’s burning took care of the wild vegetation problem when the fire spread to the Mast property.

“That was our beginning,” Mast said. “We had lived in Michigan and had gotten hooked on blueberries. We went to a Louisburg berry patch and the land looked a lot like ours. We had our soil tested and it was just right for strawberries.”

In the spring of 2006, Mast and her husband planted 10,000 strawberry plants, 5,000 raspberry plants and 1,500 blueberry plants.

“We bought a used tobacco planter, you know the kind where a person sits on the end of each side and bends over to stick the plant in the ground,” Mast said. “But that only helped with the strawberries. The raspberries and blueberries had to be planted by hand.

“It rained for a week. It was horrible for us, but great for the plants.”

That was the beginning of Berry Good Farm in rural Ottawa, and where we went this week for week six of the Locavore Challenge.

Ottawa Herald photographer Elliot Sutherland and his wife, Teresa, have pledged to eat at least one meal a day made up of only locally grown and produced food. This week they’re loading up the freezer with the second production of the season’s red raspberries at Berry Good Farm.

Asparagus is available at Berry Good Farm in April and May. Earliglow strawberries are ready for you to pick in early May. Allstar strawberries come on the vine in mid-May and Jewel berries are ready mid-to-late May.

Black raspberries are available in late June as are red raspberries and blueberries.

Red raspberries are available again in early September until frost.

Along with tasting good, the fruit grown at Berry Good Farm is good for you.

Raspberries and blueberries have a substance in them that works like the prescription drug Vioxx, which is often prescribed to relieve the painful symptoms of arthritis.

Unlike Vioxx, the berries have no side effects.

Blueberries are full of antioxidants, which means they’re considered “brain food.”

Raspberries, at 64 calories per cup, contain cancer fighting ellagic acid, which, according to the American Cancer Society, is a promising natural supplement that causes the death of cancer cells.

Strawberries are thought to help short-term memory and are packed with vitamin C. At only 50 calories a cup, they’re diet friendly as well.

Most weeks, when fruit is in season, berries from Berry Good Farm are available at the Saturday Farmers Market, but the farm is primarily you-pick.

For pick times you may call (785) 242-8313 and leave a message. You also may visit the farm’s Web site at www.berrygoodfarm.com

Linda Brown is marketing director for The Ottawa Herald. E-mail her at lbrown@ottawaherald.com

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ASK A PROFESSIONAL: Where did all those berries come from?

By LINDA BROWN, Ask a Professional

E-mail this story to a friend | Print this article | Enjoy the convenience of home delivery of The Ottawa Herald.

E-mail this story to a friend | Print this article |
Enjoy the convenience of home delivery of The Ottawa Herald.