About 99 percent of all strawberries grown in the U.S. come from California or Florida. However, strawberries have been grown in Texas for over a century!
About an hour northwest of Austin is Marble Falls. A town in Burnet County that can boast they have some of the best strawberry picking in the entire state.
According to Dan Copeland, the owner of Sweet Berry Farm, “We leased this ground in 1999, and where we’re standing right now, we wouldn’t even be able to see the road... When we started here it was nothing but raw pasture land. We were able to clear it all with a little hard work and slowly but surely we developed it into a farm.”
He started Sweet Berry Farm on the ground where he grew up: “The farm is based on the whole premise of family fun entertainment. So, we call that agritainment-- it’s a marriage between agriculture and entertainment. The idea is to get farm families or families... to come out together, spend time outdoors, picking something, and then having fun, doing it all at the same time.”
It is a year-round operation with a focus on strawberries in the spring, sunflowers and other flowers in the summer, and pumpkins in the fall.
Dan says that it is a great way for those who did not grow up on the farm to teach their kids about where their food comes from.
“We try to teach kids that when that strawberry plant is blooming, that bloom turns into a fruit.. happens to be 30 days from the time it blooms to the time you eat it,” he states.
This is also a family affair. Dan’s daughters are involved in different aspects of Sweet Berry Farm.
Lacy is in charge of making the value-added products like ice cream, popsicles, and jam-- the jam recipe is a treasured one.
“It all started with granny,” Lacy explains. “Granny started making jam a long, long time ago... and once dad started growing berries, she said we should make some jam and I was always helping her make jam, and that was one of my favorite memories of the farm.”
Many say that the strawberry ice cream is some of the best they have ever tasted.
Lacy says that it is not by accident: “It really is a science. I use percentages, averages, I use a pH meter... It’s very scientific and a lot of work goes into creating a new recipe and making sure it tastes good and consistently so, even with the inconsistency of the taste of the strawberry.”
