February 25, 2012: The new season is fast approaching! Our strawberries look good and we are watching the weather forecasts closely from here on out. We will cover the berries with a large fabric row cover if the temperatures drop too low to keep the frost or freeze from killing the strawberry blossoms. We hope to start harvesting by the middle of April and look forward to opening The Market for another season.

We finished up pruning our peaches early this year and are excited for our new orchard located 2 miles north of Lowrys on US 321 to begin bearing peaches. The orchard is 4 years old and we hope harvest plenty of peaches from the treas this year. Some varieties made a few peaches last year but we hope all the trees bear a good bit of fruit this year weather permitting. We have begun to prepare the land for all of our vegetables but will wait until early April to start planting most of our vegetable crops.

October 11, 2011: Farm Fair was a lot of fun this year! The weather was great and we hope everyone who came had a really nice time. Farm Tours will be held each remaining Saturday in October. Tours depart The Market promptly at 10:30, 1:30, and 3:30. Guests get to explore the 4 acre maze, the straw maze for young kids, the barnyard animals, and take a 40 minute wagonride through the farm.

We are picking our cotton as weather permits. We are also about to plant our strawberries that will ripen in the spring of next year. The Market will close at the end of the month but will open back up in mid-April with fresh strawberries!

September 22, 2011: Fall has come to Cotton Hills Farm. We have harvested most of our pumpkins and are already selling them wholesale. We will put up our tent by this Saturday and fill it with a huge selection of pumpkins, gourds, straw, cornstalks, and more. We also have colorful mums for available for purchase at both The Market at home in Lowrys and The Red Tomato in Fort Mill, SC. The pumpkin crop did well this year and the quality is exceptional.

We have mountain apples for sell at both retail locations. We have Mutsu, Granny Smith, Red Delicious, Golden Delicious, Fugi, and Jonagold apple varieties. They are for sale both by the pound and by the bushel box. The bushel price is $22 for about 40 lbs.

Cotton is also turning white and we are picking it now. The weather needs to be sunny and dry for it to pick well and we have not had much weather like that this week. Hopefully we will get some needed rain and then it will dry out for a while both for the cotton and the farm tours during the month of October.

August 3, 2011: Peaches, tomatoes, squash, cucumbers, zucchini, okra, watermelons, cantaloupes, and much more are all now ripe and picked each morning at Cotton Hills Farm. They can be purchased at The Market in Lowrys or The Red Tomato in Fort Mill at the corner of Hwy 21 Bypass and Old Nation.

We have just finished up picking the Cresthaven variety of peaches and are about to begin picking the Monroes. We also have China Pearl white peaches available right now too. The tomatoes are ripening fast during the hot weather. #2 tomatoes are available for purchase on the porch of The Market for $10 for a 1/2 bushel (25lbs)or $15 for a bushel (50lbs).

The cotton has set a good crop this year and the bolls will begin to open in September. We will begin to harvest the cotton in October. The soybeans also look good thanks to several good rains earlier in the summer.

April 25, 2011: Our Strawberries are now RIPE and plenty are available. They can be purchased already picked at both of our retail locations. One location is at the farm (The Market--open Mon-Sat, 9am to 7pm) and the other is in Fort Mill on Hwy 21 Bypass just south of Regency Park (The Red Tomato--open Mon-Fri, 12 to 8pm; Sat, 10am to 6pm).

Come U-Pick them yourself at the farm during our regular hours at The Market. Please check in at The Market before heading over to the strawberry field. Save $2 per gallon by picking them yourself or $3 per gallon if you pick 5 gallons or more. Call The Market at (803) 581-4545 for more information.

We are busy on the farm harvesting strawberries and starting all of our summer crops in the fields. Many of our tomatoes, cucumbers, squash, zucchini, peppers, egg plants, cantaloupes, watermelons, beans, sweet corn, and all of our okra has already been planted and look great. We've had some close calls with bad storms but so far have been spared any significant damage. Our peaches in the new orchard located a couple of miles north of Lowrys on US 321 will begin bearing some fruit this year. At that orchard we have a total of 24 varieties that will start in late May and continue to ripen through August and into the first weeks of September.

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January 25, 2011: We’re making good progress pruning our peach orchards. If we get some good weather, we should finish within a couple of weeks. Each winter we prune the peach trees. We like to keep our mature trees about head high with open centers. It is important to keep the trees pruned properly so the weight of the fruit load will not break the limbs.

Our strawberries are still in the dormant stage but look healthy. We hope to have plenty of berries for the Spring. We will have U-Pick berries again this year.

Like every winter, we try to spend some time working on our equipment getting it in better condition for the coming season. Also important is planning for the upcoming year. We always make a point to rotate our crops from one field to another each year. This is an easy way to reduce disease, insect, and some weed pressures.

Past Journals