For years, Breckenridge Farms has grown and sold muscadine grapes. Citizens in the area have always been able to enjoy the great tasting fruit that covers 300 acres of land, and the muscadines have been shipped all over the nation for production purposes.
“Muscadine season starts mid-August, and we have some seasonal workers that will hand pick some of them; we’ll open the store to the public so that they can come and purchase them,” explained Natalie Welch, employee at Breckenridge Farms. “The majority of it is picked by a harvester and is shipped to wineries across the East Coast and all over the United States. They’ll juice them and make wine and juice with our muscadines.”
Although his muscadine business has grown and is very productive, owners Charley Phillips and Elliot Phillips have listened to requests made by customers and started something new on Breckenridge Farms. This year, they have started to raise produce and started a produce cart.
“We usually just sell muscadines, but there was such a demand for produce in this area,” stated Cindy Tucker, employee at Breckenridge Farms. “Elliot decided to start planting us some gardens. Since we’ve started doing the produce, we have a broader customer base and would love to continue to increase our customer base.”
They have been growing a variety a fruit and vegetables to sell to the public: purple hull peas, crowder peas, tomatoes, watermelons, blueberries, okra, corn, squash, zucchini, cucumbers, butter beans, snap beans, and a variety of peppers.
“With it being our first year, we just planted staple plants of what we know most people want during the summer time, but we have learned more about what people’s preferences are and what they are looking for so that we know some things that we can do different next year,” said Natalie. “For example, we planted watermelons, but we’ve had the most requests for yellow watermelons. People help us know what they’re looking for, so we now know some things that we may need to plant next year.”
They have gladly brought in any produce that has been requested, and so far the new produce stand has been very successful.
They plan to have an open house on Saturday, June 27, from 9:00 a.m until 5:00 p.m. and would love to see more people come out and see all the produce they now have. They will even have special dishes prepared using the produce.
“We’re going to have baked goods for sale Saturday using our produce,” stated Natalie. “We plan to have zucchini bread, muscadine pound cake made with our muscadine juice, and some dishes with our blueberries. We even found a recipe for zucchini brownies, and they were surprisingly good, so we plan to make zucchini brownies for Saturday as well. Ms. Cindy will be making some muscadine ice cream to sell, and we will have snowballs and t-shirts that people can buy.”
Breckenridge Farms also has plans to do some giveaways as part of its open house Saturday.
“We will have some samples and plan to do a muscadine juice giveaway. We will have a drawing for anyone who comes by and signs in at open house on Saturday,” explained Natalie. “We also have a giveaway going on our facebook page. If you go on our facebook page and find the open house post and like it, share it, and tag three friends, we’re going to give away a box of mixed produce to someone who does all that and helps get the word out.”
The farm is located in the Harmony community and is open on Monday-Saturdays from 9:00 a.m. until 5:00 p.m.
They have always been renowned for their amazing muscadine vineyard, but now people in Clarke County are also able to enjoy fresh produce that is handpicked every day.
Come out on Saturday from 9:00 a.m. until 5:00 p.m. and help celebrate the new addition at Breckenridge Farms with their open house!
