Paradise gives back

Strawberry Hill hosted the First Annual Stroller Jam on Saturday night to raise money for the Spartanburg Soup Kitchen. The "Stroller," who writes a daily column for the Herald Journal, chose our place of business to host this event. In order to draw people to this event, the Stroller gathered over $6,000 worth of door prizes and even a car give-away. The soup kitchen gathered their donations through people buying raffle tickets to win those amazing prizes.
Strawberry Hill contributed to the cause by serving nearly 4,000 people hotdog plates! This was an amazing experience to be a part of, considering I have never seen so many people on our farm. At the end of the night, they announced that the soup kitchen raised $9,400 in 4 hours. The sun was hot, and it took a lot of work to feed that many people, but it was a rewarding experience to know that we will helped future people in need of food. Watching the sun go down on our farm, with thousands of people sitting on our Playhouse Field, I realized that it doesn't get any better than this. I truely love this farm, it's right where I need to be, in paradise.

Blackberry Time

Blackberries have really taken off the past few days. They came in just in time since strawberries just ended a few days ago. We just started growing blackberries 3 years ago, so we are fairly new to the production. Though, we have caught on very quickly as blackberry producers. We originally started growing blackberries for a company called Sunny Ridge, in which we planted 6 acres as a trial to be growers for them. They liked our success so we planted 34 more acres. Unfortunately, Sunny Ridge decided to release their contract with Strawberry Hill because we chose to sell our "leftover" blackberries at our open markets. Though, as much as this was an unfortunate release, we have made the best of those beautiful berries. Blackberries have given us a different type of business during peaches because we give people the opportunity to have fresh berries in the heat of the summer.

Agritourism

Strawberry Hill USA is proud to be involved in the new promotion of tourism of Spartanburg County. Today, our business had the opportunity to establish ourselves at the county meeting. We gave out fresh, homemade ice-cream, and also offered samples of peaches and blackberries. People seemed to really take to our table display and wanted to try all we had to offer. The main reason we were there was to show how our business helps contribute to tourism traffic in Spartanburg County. They recogonized our business for promoting Agritourism by helping bring people to Spartanburg for fresh fruits and vegetables.
During strawberry season, we let 1st grade classes around the county and surrounding counties take a tour of our 90 acres of stawberries, have a nature walk, educational session in the field, and even picnic. It's a great experience for the kids. Then, when peaches are over and we start selling pumpkins and harvesting decorations, we have pumpkins tours, that we do for families on the weekends. We take them on a tractor ride also and let them feed baby cows and chase piglets. The kids get to pick their own pumpkin and run in a hay trail. This tour is not educational, but intended for families to have an opportunity to spend time with one another and have a day on the farm. I think Strawberry Hill does a great job promoting agritourism in our county.

Picky Peaches

Most people just think a peach is a peach. Yet, I guess growing up in the South, people know their peaches. Therefore, people are "pick and choose" the kind of peaches they will take home with them. At Strawberry Hill, we will pick from over 1,000 acres of peaches this year on our farm. Though, until July, we will pick from cling-stone peach trees.We grow 6 varieties that are cling-stone, and they are always the first peaches to come in. Cling-stone is a type of peach thats meat will stick to the seed. In other words, the seed will not automatically come out when you slice it open. People do not prefer this type of peach because they are "too much work," and honestly, a lot of people turn their nose up to these peaches.
What everyone is anticipating is free stone peaches that do not come in in the Upstate until the first week of July. No doubt, free stone peaches taste better, look better, and are larger than the early peaches. I honestly like both freestones and clingstones, but some have a preference, and it is fine by me.

Last day of Strawberries

I love strawberry season, but the time has come for them to end. Honestly, I am glad they have ended because they just aren't as good of quality at the end of the season. I have definitely had to develop thick skin this past week. People were brutal about the quality of their produce. Since all of the excessive heat and rain, once the strawberries left our shelf, people had to use them to the day of for them to hold. In result, people would call two days after their purchase and be furious that their strawberries were over ripened. We had to personally tell every customer to use the strawberries that day or to not purchase them. I was very surprised to see how rude people got about produce. I even had one instance where a woman called to complain about her strawberries being mushy, so I told her to bring her bucket back, and she said that she had already used them all for shortcake! People were just calling to complain, even after we gave them forwarning. I'm so glad strawberries are over. Now we can focus on peach season, and Lord knows we got plenty of them.

Cooking Up a Storm

At Strawberry Hill, we bake fresh pies daily in our store, but we decided to expand our selection by making fried pies. I had the opportunity to learn how to make fried peach and strawberry pies today. Though, learning to prepare fried pies is not an easy task. Honestly, two years ago, I never would have guessed that I would be selling produce and making pies (I am just not the homemaker type). Though, being trained in the process and actually being successful in the outcome was quite rewarding. I think by making these pies in house will generate interest in our store and perhaps bring more people in to buy these home fried pies. Since we are "smaller" than the original Strawberry Hill is Chesnee, this new offer will set us aside from their store, giving us some sort of independence. We wanted to do something that was ours, being creative as possible, and generate sales of our own. Hopefully fried pie success will be coming our way soon.

Today's Goal: Expand Networking

This morning, I was dreading what I knew I had to do for the day: networking. As a young person, I love interaction with others. Though, I have trouble talking to people who are much older/more educated than I. I definitely feel inferior to them but had to overcome that fear. I went to local businesses today, giving them courtesy buckets of peaches, talking a little business, and moreover thanking them for supporting Strawberry Hill since it opened in Gaffney. I had the opportunity to meet five different managers, who all appeared to be in their mid 30s. It was not as scary as I thought it would be. I actually was impressed with how well I interacted with them, and felt like I represented Strawberry Hill in a positive manner. Even though I just sell produce, I have learned that it takes a lot more to be successful in this business besides having great fruit. Building your business takes interacting with others positively and never being satisfied enough to stop pushing for improvements. You can't stay at the top if you aren't fighting to be there.

R-E-S-P-E-C-T

For the second summer in a row, I am managing one of our stores beside the Prime Outlet Mall in Gaffney, SC. My dad put me at our Gaffney store to be his eyes and ears, and make sure the business is ran the way he would like it to be. Though, being a manager to a store thats primary audience is over 40 years of age is challenging in many ways. It's hard to establish yourself as a respectful business person if the people you are reaching out to find anything that you say unreliable because of your age. I try to learn about agricultural business on a daily basis. Being so young, I try to make sure I am fully educated about any potential questions that my customers have, that way I will have confidence with my rebutals. Working in agriculture, you have to go the extra mile to earn credibility in the industry. It will take a few more years for me to not be looked at as a "teenage girl who just works at a produce stand." I know I will have to earn my respect and keep moving forward to better myself in this business.

Rain, Rain Go Away!

The weather has been detrimental the past few days here on Strawberry Hill. We have had so much rain lately, which is both good and bad for us. Strawberries cannot handle this heat, nor the rain. Luckily, strawberry season is almost over, so this weather cannot hurt us that much longer. On the other hand, peaches are soaking up all the rain and warm weather in a positive way. Peaches flourish dramatically with every rain shower we get. Though, the other day, we did end up getting a little hail on one of our strawberry fields. Hail has a negative effect on both strawberries and peaches because it ruins strawberries and knocks peaches (both mature and still growing) off the trees. Their are a lot of things that farmers cannot control, and the weather is one of them.

It seems that in America, if you are not a lawyer or doctor, that you have not made much of your life. I strongly disagree with that state of mind. Neither one of my parents went to college, and both have been extremely successful in our family business. What is it that we do? We farm, and we love it. I grew up on a peach and strawberry farm, and never really knew how much work it was until I got out of high school. I know first hand what it is like to live on the largest strawberry farm in the Carolina's. What I want to get across in this blog is how much work farming is, and how much effort it takes to make a living off of growing fruit. Farmer's put their money on the line every season, chancing severe weather that can destroy a crop in less than 10 minutes. I think farmers understand what it takes to pick up the pieces, and live "Just another day in paradise."