Early mornings in Ozark, Mo., finds J.J. Leak and grandson Ethan picking the blueberries and blackberries she’ll sell later in the day at the Nixa Ozark Area Farmer’s Market.
The market, Thursday evenings on the Ozark square and Saturday mornings at the intersection of Highway 14 and Main Street in Nixa, is a true grower-producer market, where vendors actually grow the produce they sell.
Just as farmers and ranchers sell their animals at livestock markets, so do small-agriculture producers sell their dairy products, vegetables, herbs and fruits at farmer’s markets. Both producers and markets are growing in numbers.
The Nixa-Ozark market, J.J. said, has become an important part of her marketing.
“(The market) has been a very significant part of operating my business,” she explained. “I like the camaraderie of the other vendors. They are very hard-working people.”
J.J’.s pick of the morning are juicy, plump Southern High blueberries and inch-long Natchez blackberries, berries that beg to be eaten right off the bush. J.J.’s Berry Patch in Christian County, Mo., has several acres of blueberries, blackberries, elderberries, black and red raspberries, gooseberries, Concord grapes and a few goji berry plants. She got her start in the berry business in 2007 as she prepared for retirement from Buckhorn Inc., a plastic fabrication company in Springfield, Mo., the next year.
“I thought raising berries would be something different to do in retirement. It definitely has been something to do!” she laughed, adding that she discovered in retirement she missed the people she had worked with. Selling berries proved to be another way to meet new people.
Before she started her own berry patch, J.J. would drag her grandchildren to berry patches in the Missouri communities of Lampe, Billings and Rogersville, where they sometimes ate as much as they took home.
She began buying berry plants from a grower in Ozark, Ark., and followed a “grow and learn” philosophy in which she’s discovered the varieties that produce best.
That first year she planted an acre of blackberries and blueberries, adding a new row each year.
As a Master Gardener, she’s resisted using herbicides and pesticides, but does fertilize and prune.
For example, blueberries get a dressing of ammonia sulfate three times in March, April and May. Blackberries get a Triple 13 application and are “tipped” each summer to produce bigger berries. Other berries have different soil amendment requirements.
To hold all those berries upright, J.J.’s husband, Russ, has built long rows of support trellises out of T-posts, rebar and plastic baling twine. The supports make for easy picking and maintenance.
Among the varieties J.J. recommends for the home grower are: Blueberries – Ozarkblue, Summit and Patriot. Blackberries – Chickasaw, Kiowa, Natchez, Rosebough, Ouachita and Chester.
“You’ll need to experiment to find the berries that work best for you, and you may want to mix them up with early and late bloomers,” she said.
J.J. added that the Ozarks sit on the edge of two climate zones. For her, southern varieties have produced better than northern varieties, but you have to work out what will thrive in your particular microclimate and berry patch.
