By KARI KRAMER | East Texas Edition

One positive aspect of the fruit production is that the entire family can work together. Pictured with the blackberry bushes are (from top to bottom) Steve, Lynn, Levi, Zech, and Hannah Jarvis. The children have their chores with the production, such as cleaning rows, trimming, and picking. Demand for the blackberries has been great. Last year, while selling to the public from his pickup bed in Sulphur Springs, Steve said he sold out every day by 10 a.m. Further plans for the farm include joining the Texas Department of Agriculture’s Go TEXAN program, and developing a pick-your-own place that will include picnic tables and fishing.      -- Staff photo by Kramer

June 1, 2006 - Steve and Lynn Jarvis of Como know agriculture. Since they started farming they’ve dealt with a lot: the non-existent vacations, long hours, the stress of calving season and the burden of plunging hog prices. 

The pair both grew up around agriculture, so they have always had a knack for it. Eventually, increased capital costs and unsteady markets led the couple to consider a different type of agriculture.

“We just kept looking for a different opportunity,” recalled Steve, 38.

Four years ago, after a little research and talking to producers in the area, they found their niche and comfortably settled in with it on their 65 acres in Hopkins County.

The couple decided to start a fruit operation, something Steve had a little experience with.

“My grandfather had an orchard when I was a boy,” he said. Following in his grandfather’s footstep, Steve and Lynn invested in some blackberry plants.

“We started with the blackberries first,” Steve said. “We planted them a few years ago, just to kind of learn.”

It was also at that time they began buying peach trees.

They soon put in extensive irrigation to support the water sensitive blackberries. Steve also took time to visit with other blackberry growers and pick up a few tips.

“They were a tremendous help,” he said. “There’s just little tricks you can only learn by doing.”

The blackberries are plump and ready for sell at the Jarvis’ family farm in Hopkins County. Steve Jarvis packs the fresh berries and sell them to the public from his truck at a location in town. -- Staff photo by Kramer

Still, he said he did not copy what others in the area were doing.

“You have to learn what works on your farm,” he explained. “You might have to change something a little bit.

“But blackberries are a native fruit, and easy to grow.”

Through some successful trials, the Jarvises were able to find their niche with the blackberries. The peach trees offered another means of income, and later Steve decided to offer something more unique and planted fig trees.

During this time, Steve worked as a construction contractor while establishing the fruit farm, now called First Fruits Farm and Nursery. He said he was able to maintain a job that carried the family financially while getting the farm up and running because the time involved with establishing blackberries is not as extensive as with other projects.

“You can work another job and do this on the weekend starting out,” he said. It’s a fact that he believes might eventually encourage other young farmers and families to get involved in a similar venture.

Also, as opposed to their former cattle and hog operations, the starting up a fruit farm was less stressful and required a smaller initial investment.

“The stress level is not as high,” he said. “You don’t have the overhead with blackberries.”

And though some type of failure is inevitable, Steve said losing plants is a little easier to swallow than loosing a cow worth several hundred dollars.

“You’re going to have plants die,” he said. “But, it’s not even a $100 investment.” 

In addition, Lynn, who homeschools their three children, Levi,10, Zech, 7, and Hannah, 5, was able, along with the children, to do some work on the place.

Today, after years of observing and learning, the children work alongside their parents on the property. 

“They’re right there with you,” Steve said of his children, who, he admitted, have do more around the place than other children their ages.

“They know how to trim and prune,” he explained. Many days the children do their home-schooling in the morning and spend the afternoon working in the fields, clearing brush, trimming plants, and cleaning rows.

The kids enjoy it and Steve compared their experience to those of children who were raised working farms and going to school during the Second World War. The times “made it to where they could do anything and I think that’s the environment that we have here,” explained Steve.

Today, the family has more than 3,000 blackberry plants throughout their property, 200 peach trees, and 100 fig trees. 

Next year they plan on joining the Go TEXAN program and expanding their operation to include a pick-your-own service.

In addition, though Steve said “blackberries are the niche,” the family plans to make the most of their property and stock the pond so guests can fish when they come to pick berries (the family grows thornless varieties that are ideal for picking). They are also hoping to build a picnic area.

“We want it to be a relaxing time, just getting out in the country,” he said.

After humble beginnings, the farm now sells fig and peach trees, in addition to the blackberry plants.

“That’s another avenue we never even dreamed of,” said Steve.

But, he admitted it has not always been easy.

“Last year’s drought was a real problem,” Steve explained. Even with the extensive irrigation, it was difficult to keep the ground around the plants moist.

Also, he said controlling grasshoppers, weeds, and other nuisances can be very time consuming.

“If you’re going to do berries, you need to be determined,” he said.

But, in the end, the work pays off. This year “looks like it’s going to be a good berry crop,” according to Steve. And, he does not think he’ll have a problem getting rid of the crop when he sells his blackberries direct to the public in nearby Sulphur Springs. 

“We sold every berry last year, every day, before 10 a.m.,” he recalled. And because “there’s not many people going into this,” Steve said he feels business will continue to get better as customers seek out fresh berries in the area.

The ease of growing blackberries and help from each other has enabled Steve and his family to meet the demand. With extensive labor lasting just six to eight weeks a year, Steve said they “are able to do other things, like expand.”

In fact, Steve currently has plans to plant 50,000 blackberry plants, so that in years to come he’ll have plenty of berries to sell in town and for visitors to pick on their own.

“In our fifth year we should have enough to make a pretty good living,” Steve said of next year’s endeavors.

Overall, the family rated the experience successful. A supplemental income will no longer be needed, and what labor is required is easily divided between five people ranging in age from 5 to 38. But, no matter how great the partners, Steve credits a lot of success to his product.

“Blackberries alone will sell themselves,” he said. “They just draw their own customers.”

Steve and the family will be selling their fruits in Sulphur Springs next to Lowes at the intersection of Highway 11 and Broadway. In addition, the family sells regularly at their farm in Como. For more information, call 903-488-0013, or visit www.JarvisFreshFruits.com.