Zimmerman's Berry Farm

Black raspberries ripen first at Zimmerman’s Berry Farm. Then blackberries, followed by blueberries, golden raspberries and wineberries (an extra juicy red raspberry), and finally red raspberries in August. People come from as far as Atlanta , Georgia , to pick fruit at this 50-acre, mostly wooded western North Carolina mountain farm.

With her husband Billy, Pam Zimmerman started the pick-your-own berry patch in 1999 on the old tobacco fields Billy’s grandparents first planted in the 1920s. Once a king crop in the South, tobacco farming is on the decline in the United States as production moves offshore. Tobacco is lucrative to grow, but the federal government limits how much farmers are permitted to produce. Pam thinks it’s a matter of a few years before tobacco farming disappears from the area altogether.

“I hate to see it leave because there’s so much history tied to it,” she laments. “For people that have farmed tobacco all their lives and don’t know how to do anything else, it’s going to hurt.”

That’s why this tobacco grower is diversifying her operation with berries, tree fruit and a small patch of sweet corn and green beans.

Back when she was embarking on the new path, onlookers were doubtful she could get anyone to drive the 25 miles of winding mountain roads to her remote farmstead just to pick berries. Even Pam underestimated the amount of traffic the operation would garner.

“It’s been surprising to me that we would have as many people come out [as we have],” she said. As the only pick-your-own place around, Pam hold the corner on a market of people looking to spend a day in the mountains, and health conscious folks in search of fresh fruit, grown with minimal chemical use.

Striving to grow organically, she uses no insecticides and is exploring other ways besides spraying herbicides to keep weeds from choking out her plants. To keep the berry leaves dry and mold-free, she replaced a sprinkler system with drip irrigation instead of resorting to fungicide.

To build up organic content and desalinate soil stripped of fertility by years of chemical fertilizer use on the tobacco field, Pam has hauled countless loads of composted chicken manure and mulch. She also learned on the job that blueberries, more finicky than the others, like acidic soils and she adds sulfur to drop the pH Balance.

Pam likes growing fruit because what’s not sold can be eaten or made into jams and jellies. But as more people get wind of Zimmerman’s Berry Farm, she’s finding that leftovers are not a guarantee. Some customers even call ahead, anxious not to miss out on berry season, to reserve their share. The farm benefits from being near a natural hot springs that attracts lots of tourists, and it draws repeat customers from nearby Asheville , who return throughout the summer as each new berry variety comes in season.

As Zimmerman’s expands in step with growing demand, the little berry patch is maturing into a veritable Garden of Eden. Now, black current and elderberry bushes, as well as persimmon, hazelnut, mulberry, pawpaw, and chinquapin (like a chestnut, but smaller) trees dapple the mowed grounds with shade. Most of the plants she grows are native to the Appalachian range, or have been grown in the area for generations.

“I can remember my grandparents talking about going out and picking pawpaws or persimmons,” Pam reminisces of her tobacco-farming elders. The former is a rarely grown banana-like, pear-shaped fruit, while persimmons are soft bright orange fruits with syrupy sweep pulp.

“I like being able to help preserve the heritage of the mountain folks by having the native fruits that my grandparents talked about. It's important that the next generations be able to understand--and see and even taste--some of what it was like for the early generations that had to rely on these fruits as part of their daily lives.”

Pam and Billy want that experience for their son and daughter, who are the main reason the couple farms. Both kids work, helping with everything from tending the berry patch to making and bottling jams in the certified kitchen, and assisting customers. Farm life, Pam believes, gives her children “a greater respect for and understanding of the world around them. They learn how to work and it teaches them responsibility.”

For Pam, who traces the lineage of some of her plants back to her grandparents’ mountain garden and relies on the same spring the family drank from nearly a hundred years ago, farming is a way of taking care of not just the land, but also of history.