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Remember Octobers in Ooltewah, circa 1976? I sure do. In the mornings, frost laced the pumpkin leaves. Mist steamed up from little ponds into the bright, chilly air. We kids ran through the fields and woods, watching out for rattlesnakes that hadn’t quite settled in to hibernate yet.
(Remember how Ben Stone up on White Oak Mountain collected rattlesnakes?)
There were one or two small subdivisions, but most people who lived in Ooltewah had been on the land for generations. Families just built new houses or barns beside old ones that crumbled into the landscape as gently as a Ben Hampton painting.
That’s the kind of farm Aubie Smith, co-owner of Smith-Perry Berries, grew up on and where he still lives today. And that’s the kind of experience you’ll find when you visit Smith-Perry Berries.
Along with co-owner Bill Perry, Smith turned his family farm into an open-to-the-public strawberry farm in 2018.
“I had grown sunflowers before that,” Smith recalls. “In 2018 I started the strawberries. You plant them in the fall, harvest in the spring. We started with one acre and by last year we had six acres.”
Local farm strawberries taste far better than store-bought ones, Smith explains—those berries can travel for hundreds of miles and sit in a cooler for several days between picking and eating, whereas flavor almost bursts from fresh-picked berries with every bite.
“If you haven’t ever had a strawberry picked fresh, it’s hard to describe,” Smith says.
It’s Pumpkin Season
The pumpkins, Smith continues, grow behind the strawberries. They’re for sale pre-picked, but what many families love best is the pick-your-own experience, selecting their perfect white, stackable or Jack-o-Lantern pumpkin. Since many children today have never harvested their own vegetables, pick-your-own offers an educational treat. It’s also a safe, socially distanced way to have fun.
At Smith-Perry Berries, though, picking your pumpkin is just the start.
“We have a hay ride and a barrel train,” Smith says, explaining that the barrel train is a ride for young children where they ride in barrels pulled around by a tractor. “You pay three dollars to get into the Kids’ Zone. We have a slide, corn crib and what we call a duck race, where kids pump water and race water ducks.”
For older folks, there’s the Pumpkin Cannon. You can celebrate the end of your hayride by shooting a pumpkin out of the cannon—some pumpkins travel as far as 600 feet before landing with a satisfying splat!
With Halloween on the way, I can’t imagine a better way to spend an afternoon than enjoying the crisp fall air and finding a perfect Jack-o-Lantern pumpkin at Smith-Perry Berries.
Plan Your Trip
Smith-Perry Berries is family-friendly and pet-friendly. Right now, their hours are Saturday/Sunday, noon–6 p.m., but they expect to be open longer and more frequently as Halloween approaches. You can always find daily updates to activities and open hours at facebook.com/Smithperryberries.
Smith-Perry Berries
- 9626 Ooltewah-Ringgold Rd.
- Ooltewah, TN 37363
- smithperryberries.com
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