Locavana Market

Fish Lake Organic Berry Patch

Fish Lake Organic Berry Patch website

Fish Lake Organic Berry Patch is the farm of Fritz Miller, who sells his berries and jams at the Goshen Farmers Market. Fritz was born into farming, the oldest of nine children, and was milking a cow named Tilly by age four; later he milked three cows every morning before the school bus came. His family grew corn, oats, mint and wheat without herbicides, and as a boy in the 1970s he had to cultivate the cornfield three times because there were no herbicides for it.

He always kept raspberries and always grew them organically. After he planted two more rows, market co-founder Beth Neff contacted him asking for all the raspberries he could grow. He arrived with a bike and six pints, and by 2000 and 2001 he was selling out before the market closed. In those early years shoppers often asked whether his berries were certified organic, and some walked away when he said no. By 2003 he had started making jam, and he chose to get certified, learning the careful record keeping it requires.

Since then he has made jam in his own kitchen in small batches, now a couple of thousand jars a year. He believes customers value knowing where their food comes from and who grows it. He weeds many of his plants by hand, watches them bud, bloom and ripen before picking, and prints his motto about hands in the dirt and heart in nature on every jar.

Products from Fish Lake Organic Berry Patch

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