Late May at the Farm: Strawberries, Passion Vines & What’s Next?

Hi friends,

A passion fruit flower and seed pod

Yes. We still have strawberries! How much longer is anyone’s guess, but it looks like we could have some overlap with the blackberries. A few years ago when we planted the blackberries we had this vine show up in the patch as a “weed”. Turns out it was purple passion flower or maypop or passion fruit. Yes. Passion fruit. I’ve been slowly experimenting with cultivating this wild plant so we could have more of it. It has an absolutely stunning flower, is an amazing pollinator plant and it is the host plant for the Gulf Fritillary (passion butterfly).

Last year it was so exciting seeing all the butterflies, caterpillars, and chrysalis on the vines. It would appear that the word is out in the Fritillary World that it’s all you can eat at Heeks Farm. You get what you sow. Turns out passion flower is THE plant where the gulf fritillary lays its eggs, which hatch and turn into very hungry caterpillars that eat passion flower leaves. This isn’t a problem on our established vines, but the newly planted rows that had all of our baby plants got eaten up by the very hungry caterpillars. Luckily the blackberry patch is still inundated with passion fruit vines, so I’ve been digging up the plants and transplanting them into the barren rows. We will still have passion fruit this year, but maybe not as many. 

We have plenty of strawberries for picking. Come out and get some before the season is over. We are open this Saturday, May 31st from 8am-5pm and Friday, May 30th from 9am-5pm. We are generally open weekdays 9am-5pm. Call 919-627-2946 to confirm hours and picking conditions before you come.  

Your Farmer,

David Heeks 

P.S. Would you be interested in a pick-your-own pumpkin patch at Heeks Farm? Email me and let me know, yes or no. If not pumpkins what would you like to see? Melons, corn, green beans, etc?