August 12, 2010: We still have plenty of tomatoes, freestone peaches, corn, okra, squash, cucumbers, zucchini, melons, and more at The Market! Hours are 9 to 7, Mon to Sat. Our sweet potatoes—the Beauregard variety—look really good and we’ll begin digging fresh potatoes soon! Our pumpkins are now beginning to lap in the rows and are filled with blooms. We have had to irrigate all of our fruit and vegetable crops due to the dry weather but August has brought some good rainfall. Plans are now being made for Farm Fair 2010! It will be held on Saturday, October 9th. It will feature wagonrides, barnyard animals, corn maze, farm equipment, a Bluegrass band, Roman’s Revenge Pumpkin Chunk’n Catapult and much more. Make plans now to bring the entire family and friends for a fun day on the farm.

April 24, 2010: The Market at Cotton Hills Farm is now OPEN. Hours are 9AM to 7PM, Monday through Saturday. Our own strawberries are now ripe and plenty are available. U-Pick begins this Monday, April 26th. Our prices this year at The Market are $10 a gallon for berries already picked and only $8 a gallon for u-pick berries. Please call The Market with any questions you may have. 803.581.4545.

Cotton Hills Farm is located on US 321 just south of the York and Chester County line. We are within a 30 to 50 minute drive from Rock Hill, Fort Mill, Tega Cay, Lake Wylie, Clover, Gastonia, Union SC, Winnsboro, Lancaster, and even Charlotte. The Market address is 2575 Lowrys Hwy, Chester, SC 29706.

Last week we began planting cotton and hope to finish in the coming week. The peach crop looks really good this year and we have just completed the thinning process. Some years the trees set too large of a crop and the result can be small peaches. By removing a percent of the fruit set, the peaches will be a nice size. This thinning was done all by hand and is a very slow and tedious thing to do. All of the vegetables are still off to a great start. We hope to have creamer potatoes, lettuce, onions, cabbage, and broccoli soon. Squash will begin to produce in only a few weeks.

April 8, 2010: The Market at Cotton Hills Farm will open for the season on Friday, April 23rd. We will be featuring our own strawberries. U-Pick will be available on a first come basis, weather permitting. Feel free to call ahead for picking conditions and availability. Regular business hours for The Market are Monday through Saturday, 9AM to 7PM. Telephone: 803.581.4545.

Our first plantings of tomatoes, squash, cucumbers, and more are already in the ground for this season and seem to be well-established. We hope to have our own peaches, tomatoes, and more by the third week in June. Our first planting of sweet corn is already up!

We have plans to sell at the Charlotte Regional Farmer’s Market located off of 1801Yorkmont again this year. This will be our fourth year at the market. We also have plans to sell at a new location this year. More information about this location will be posted soon.

January 26, 2010: It’s January but things on the farm are still pretty busy. We are pruning both peach orchards right now. The older orchard takes about 20 to 30 minutes to prune each tree. The newer trees planted this time last year take about 2 minutes. However, the pruning done this year on the young trees will likely shape the tree in the long-term. As we prune, we decide which branches will be the main forks of the tree or which branches should be cut off. We generally want to have about four main branches on our trees with the center open. Ideally the tree will look like an upside down umbrella (without the handle of course) when it begins to bear peaches. We hope to have peaches from these trees next summer!

Also on the farm we are looking after our strawberries. The extreme cold over three weeks that we had at the start of the year worried us but the berries seem to be fine. When they begin to bloom in March, temperatures need to stay above freezing or we must either cover them or run water over them.

We are very excited about our new sorting, grading, and wholesaling building that will be located near our retail market. The new building will allow us to further improve our quality and consistency of our fruits and vegetables. We’re hoping to complete this project in time for the strawberries in mid-April.

As always, our retail stand The Market will open in April with a supply of fresh fruits and vegetables. We do offer reduced “by the bushel” prices for retail customers at The Market. For anyone in the produce business interested in buying wholesale quantities direct from the farm, please contact Peter Wilson at peter_bruce_wilson@hotmail.com or 803.385.7695.

October 31, 2009: Our Market closes today but will re-open in mid-April in time for our own strawberries. U-Pick strawberries will be available again this year. We will open on December 19th for the Lowrys Christmas Parade. The parade will begin at 1:00.

We are about halfway finished picking cotton this year. The wet weather this month has delayed harvest. The soybeans will be ready to combine in a week or two depending on the weather. Planting grain such as wheat and rye will begin soon too. There is always plenty to do on the farm even during the time of year when The Market is closed.

September 26, 2009: We are now picking pumpkins and our big tent is up! Beginning Saturday, October 3rd, the farm will be inviting the public to tour the farm. Wagons depart The Market at 10:30, 1:30, and 3:30. For more information about our Saturday tours and our Farm Fair (scheduled for October 10th), please click here.

Our cotton is getting close to being ready to be picked. Generally when we start picking cotton, we work at it hard and late until it is all harvested. Hopefully we’ll be finished by November.

Past Journals