More Than Just Berries
Filling a void and building a family farm for families
At the windy crest of a hardly noticeable rise in the surrounding prairie – tucked between dozens of Texas ranchettes carved out of former cotton fields – is Blackland Berry Farm.
After turning on to Howell Road from FM548, south of Royse City, and making one dog-leg curve onto Jones Road soon after, Blackland Berry Farm reveals itself on the east side of the blacktop.
Turning into the parking lot, a cheerful sign featuring an abstract blackberry greets the visitor front and center. To the left is a welcoming pole barn with a herd of picnic tables resting underneath it instead of cows. Centered between the barn and the sign is a curious lavender booth-like hut artfully lettered with“ ring the bell for service” painted on one of its windows.
Slightly past the parking lot, rows and rows of blackberry bushes extend ad infinitum to the end of the property.
It’ s a modest place. But magical in its own natural way.
Ten years ago co-owners Justin Orrick and his father, David, had come to a crossroads in their lives.
“ In 2016 I was going through a divorce so I moved back in with my folks, like any young person. Then about a month later, my Mom had a stroke and ended up passing away,” Justin said,“ It kind of flips your life upside down as you can imagine, so I started doing some real soul searching about what’ s important in life.”
He and his dad started looking for something that would“ fill that void” both of them
were feeling.
Justin can’ t remember when the idea of a pick-your-own fruit farm surfaced. Neither he nor his father had any previous experience with them but they teamed up anyway and purchased 18 acres and put up a sign.
By November of 2017, they had 775 blueberry plants in the ground.
“ Slowly, we just kept adding to them,” Justin said,“ And the year after we added blackberries on the back.” Business was slow at first.“ My Dad and I started by sitting here in the back of a pickup truck under the shade of this tree hoping people would pull in. Sometimes they did and sometimes they didn’ t,” he said.
When the Covid pandemic came, everything changed.
“ By the summer of 2020, a couple of months after people had been cooped up in their houses, they were itching to get out,” Justin said.
And the berry farm provided a safe outdoor family-friendly experience.
It was around this time shaved ice was added to the berry farm experience.
“ So I thought maybe we could do snow cones, right? And I wanted 100 flavors. I wanted everything,” Justin said, recalling when he purchased the lavender hut from a woman in Burleson.
“ It came with all the creams, all the syrups, all the everything. But then I started looking at a bottle of pineapple syrup and the ingredients. It was like 40 ingredients and none of them were pineapple,” he said.“ It’ s
Berry LIFE D WORDS & PHOTOS BY LAURIE WHITE KING
SPRING 2025 17