A Brief History of The Berry Patch
We have seen growth, not only in our patch from one and one-half acres, but exciting growth in our circle of friends – our “pickers” – who spend a day, or maybe more, with us enjoying the beauty of God’s creation through our farm, and the bounty of His goodness through His delightful fruit… the blueberry. We began in 1975 with nothing but land (no roads, ponds or buildings), enthusiasm, and a vision. We planted peaches… they died.
We planted raspberries… they died. The apples lived, but in spite of much prior analysis, had standing water under them, leaving them very subject to root rot. Two acres of blackberries flourished but had a sterility virus. They never produced a berry. Blueberries were never in our head, much less in our plan. We happened to look at a Blueberry Patch only to check out an irrigation system. One thing led to another, and we now are Missouri’s largest blueberry grower.
Our first picking year, 1980, we were still living in Lenexa, and commuting to the farm. Only days before the season we managed to burn our barn to the ground, so checkout was under the trees to the west of the garden. Exhausted (physically and financially) after the “fire season,” we decided to abandon our “dream house” plans and build a combination “sale barn-shop-tempoprary residence,” where the barn had been. In 1981, the checkout was in the “house,” which was an unfinished pole-barn with homemade signs in unpainted windows. Our customers were all so supportive — about the time we would be discouraged because we just didn’t seem to be getting anywhere with our building, someone would tell us how much we had done since last year, and how far we had come. It was the wonderful encouragement that kept us going many days.
Finally, in November, 1981, we moved in and by the next spring, 1982, it actually looked like someone (semi) civilized lived here. In those days we weighed the berries on the front porch and checkout was in our dining room. With incredible help from Penny’s mom and dad, our “barn house” became so comfortable we built a new barn rather than a house. In 1987, Tom left IBM and his daily commute to downtown KC, we improved our new barn (even added our air-conditioned, “indoor outhouse”) and moved the sales area to the barn. We have been selling from there ever since.
Penny’s Mom and Dad, Ed and Peggy Stevenson (PaPa and Nanny to our kids) got the farming bug and bought the land north of us. Starting from scratch, they too built barn, house and planted 2 Acres of Strawberries. The Lord called Papa home Christmas of 1997. Papa left like a man. He tossed over 1000 bales to mulch the strawberries the week before he got sick. Since they lived next door for a number of years, the kids all got to have a great relationship with their grandpa.
We miss not only his loving “patriarchship,” but his incredible industry and dry wit.
In 2001, Nanny moved into Belton to a smaller, more manageable home in a retirement community. She loves her new place, and has lived there for 15 years now. Without Papa to manage the strawberries, we have given up trying to farm them ourselves, as they are incredibly labor intensive.
In the Fall of 1991 we planted a couple thousand Daylilies and other perennials. We had learned that daylilies were impossible to kill, but after a freak early hard freeze, 3/4ths died and were replanted in the Spring of 1992. Don Fields, a pastor studying at Calvary, and his family helped us add a new shop in 1991, a larger warehouse and expanded sales area in the Spring of ’92, and a beginning playground in ’93. Every year brings changes and improvements in some areas of our operation. The Lord willing you will see more improvements in the future as we expand and carry out our plans to serve you better. The best additions, however, have been our precious sons, David, 1987 (the Lord knew we were going to need the dining room to be more quiet) and Joshua, 1989 and daughter Grace, 1993.
With very little advertising, The Berry Patch has grown from around 100 to over 10,000 people enjoying a blueberry outing each year. We deeply appreciate the love our customers have shown us through your word-of-mouth advertising, your notes with submitted recipes, and particularly your loyal return each year. Thanks to all of you, and the Lord’s ability to get around our “plans,” our farming adventure has been and is a delightful excursion!
In Recent News…
In 2011 Josh and Liz were married. They now reside in Oregon and seem to be enjoying it out there. Grace graduated vet school from MU and is now working in Seattle only a short haul from Josh and Liz.
David met his wife Stephanie Willis working at the Missouri State Capitol in politics and they were married in 2015. Ironically, they had lived miles apart for years but it took careers leading them to Jefferson City for them to meet. David and Stephanie have two children, a son, 4 years old, and a daughter, 2 years old and are expecting their 3rd baby in the spring of 2024.
During the summer of 2021, David and Stephanie purchased the farm from Tom and Penny to keep the family business alive so that after years of hard work both Tom and Penny could finally take that “retirement” everyone dreams of.
Sadly, Penny was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s just before 2015 and the disease finally took her to her Heavenly home in May 2023. Penny radiated happiness and kindness and many of our customers share every year the conversations they shared with her and how welcoming she was every season. Her presence at the patch will truly be missed.
In early February 2024 we also lost Tom, he was 88 and was fortunate to never have to leave the farm where he found the most joy and happiness.
We are ever-working on the farm, planting more and more blueberries, and most recently a new blackberry patch – and excited for what the future has in store for us in the future.
