By Jennifer Dorsett
Field Editor
Two years ago, Texas Farm Bureau (TFB) visited with Chris and Kylie Demases of Pecan Creek Strawberry Farm as they embarked on their first open season as a u-pick berry farm.
The young couple has seen much success since then, growing to nearly five acres with more than 50,000 plants at their farm located just south of Pilot Point. Chris said their operation has grown, and they’ve learned something new each season.
But COVID-19 threatened to undermine their sweet success this year.
“We had to sort of make a last-minute decision on what to do,” Kylie said. “I’m an RN, and I was working at the hospital until berry season started. So, we’d been monitoring the situation and thinking about how we could handle things, but the pandemic didn’t really start hitting the U.S. until mid-March, which was right before we planned to open.”
With a tentative open date set for April 1, the Demases had to think fast. The u-pick experience is integral to their business model, but Chris and Kylie didn’t want too many people to be in close contact and risk disease transmission.
They decided the best course would be to pick the berries ahead of time and offer drive-thru purchasing.
Chris, who sold berries at his family’s farm stand for a couple of years before starting the business with Kylie, said the circumstances are different, but the work feels familiar.
“I started a pick-your-own operation in hopes to never have to pick a berry again,” he said, laughing. “But we’re as busy as ever, and it’s just been outstanding to see the level of support from our customers.”
And they have family support, too. Kylie’s stepmom and three cousins help Chris pick the berries, along with some young neighbors looking to earn a little money.
“It’s one of those things where you can see it as a negative, but we see it as a positive,” Kylie said. “The kids were out of school and wanted to work, and we needed the help. But if they were in school, they couldn’t work, and we wouldn’t have needed their help anyway, since people would be picking their own berries. So, it’s all just working out.”
And the pandemic has had the unanticipated effect of bringing people closer to agriculture.
“For the longest, people may have come out here for the experience, and sometimes they could get frustrated when we didn’t have enough berries,” Kylie said. “People were still doing all of their shopping at the grocery store, where they just thought strawberries and everything else was an endless supply. But now that the stores have run out of staples a few times and are limiting things, it’s helped people understand what we’ve always preached—the field is a living, breathing thing, and we just help it produce berries, not direct it.”
The Demases are thankful for the weather and overall good growing season.
“We’re picking three days a week, and production still can’t meet demand,” Chris said. “But the season looks good, and we should be here through the end of May.”
For more information, including hours of operation, for the u-pick farm, visit http://pecancreekstrawberryfarm.com.