Danamay Farm may have started selling blueberries and blackberries June 27, but meticulous preparations for Mid-Missouri's newest you-pick berry farm began several years ago.
"There's been a lot that has gone into it (Danamay Farm) between now and when we started," Danamay Farm owner Amy Craighead said.
When she and her husband, Gabe, bought the 20-acre farm 10 years ago, they envisioned a unique purpose for the farm.
"We just wanted to do something a little bit different with it rather than grow crops because we didn't have enough land to grow the crop farm," Craighead said.
Craighead said they've been working on the details of the U-pick berry farm for five years. She said they did two years of ground preparation before they planted their first acre of blueberries in 2012, and a little over a year ago, they planted blackberries. In August 2012, they completed all the ground preparations, which entailed building up their planting mounds because the farm is situated on flat ground.
"We had to build these mounds up," Craighead said. "My husband owns a tractor, so he built long rows - 20 of them. We really focused our nutrients - like the soil amendments and stuff that we added - in those rows."
When they planted, they used a organic matter mix that consisted of pine bark compost and peat moss to ensure the berries received the proper nutrients for the best growth.
As they planned the layout and size of their berry business, they had to determine where the irrigation systems would be, where customers would park and most importantly, the best location to plant the berries on the farm, Craighead said.
"When we were planning the farm, I did a lot of market research as far as what you needed population-density-wise to have an acre, or how much population density you could sustain," she explained. "That was part of the process of starting and deciding how much we wanted to do and feature an expansion."
They decided to set aside 10 acres exclusively for the berry farm. They currently have one acre designated for blueberries and one acre for blackberries.
She emphasized that she and Gabe have done a lot of soil preparation. They've weighed about four semi-loads of mulch through the process, she said.
"As far as the farm with the ground prep, we did a green manure, we did some soil amendments to make sure that the soil pH and the organic matter was where we needed it for blueberries specifically," Craighead said. "It's really hard to grow blueberries in Missouri."
She said their plant sciences degrees from the University of Missouri and their agricultural background helped them in the planning process.
Working with the Show Me Innovation Center for a short time this year as they were getting ready to open also helped, she said.
Craighead said the name of the farm was inspired by her mother.
"I have five brothers and one sister, so out of the seven of us, the three youngest are Daniel, Amy and Clay, and my mom came up with it a long time ago when we were little," Craighead said. "She'd holler at us and that's kind of what it sounds like all blurred together," she said. "I just liked how it sounded. My husband, Gabe, was gracious enough to go with it."
Craighead said the greatest challenge of owning a berry farm is all the work, time and labor that is required daily, but her hard works pays off when she sees people visiting the farm, enjoying their time picking together and being outside.
She also stressed the importance of supporting local farmers and for people to know more about their food.
"We want to teach people about their food, where it comes from and what we do," Craighead said.
The closest blueberry farms she knows about are located in Kirksville and north of Centralia. She thinks the farm will receive good business because there aren't may you-pick berry farms in the area.
"There used to be one in Jamestown but I think they've closed, and I think there used to be one in Columbia that's closed," Craighead said. "There's really not very many people around that grow blueberries and have you-pick operations."
Danamay Farm sells berries by the pound - blueberries cost $3 while blackberries are $3.50.
Craighead said she and Gabe have discussed growing and selling strawberries once more people know about their business.
"We've talked about doing strawberries but before we do we need to build a customer base, and part of that will be using social media and word of mouth to achieve that," she said.
Craighead said Danamay Farm will only be open two to three more weeks because berry season is very short.
Danamay Farm is located between Fulton and Kingdom City, about a mile off Highway 54 on the west side of the highway.