The Trip to Bountiful

Berry Delicious Experiences Await at Worthington Orchards

 
Photography by Kevin Emmert 

By Rachel Steele
Texan News Service

Baskets of ripe, luscious red strawberries and pots of blooming flowers create a lush tapestry of color at Worthington Orchards.

Rather than buy a basket full of berries stacked up by the cash register, though, some folks prefer to go into the fields and pick their own. Families often make an outing of it and bring a picnic lunch to enjoy under the gazebo while they savor the slower pace of country culture.

Located on U.S. Highway 377 one mile southwest of Proctor, Worthington Orchards has become a popular stopping place for travelers making their way from the Dallas-Fort Worth area to San Angelo and other destinations west. 

Owners Mary and Dr. Jody Worthington, a retired horticulturalist at the Texas A&M University Research and Extension Center in Stephenville, grow everything from strawberries and blackberries to blackeyed peas, cucumbers, cantaloupe, watermelons, squash, sweet corn, onions, plums, okra, eggplants, beans, jalapenos and bedding plants on their 10-acre patch of land in Comanche County. Mary, a retired Dublin schoolteacher, stocks flower-patterned plates, teapots, as well as vases, flowerpots, wreaths, garlands, silk flowers and antiques in the gift shop.

Running a farm and sharing their love and knowledge of growing plants suits them well. “We both enjoy this,” Jody said. “This is something we do together.”

The recent rains helped vegetables such as squash, but strawberries don’t like moisture, Mary said.

"We have them in raised beds that keep their heads out of the water,” she explained. The strawberries will be winding down around the end of May. The next crop coming on that customers can pick are blackberries.

“They’re beginning to turn red now and should be ready by the first part of June,” Mary said. “The flowers have pretty much finished blooming. The blackberries are up on trellises, so they’re easy to pick.”

Other than the berries, blackeyed peas are the only other crop customers can pick on their own.  The couple and their two employees harvest everything else themselves in the mornings, including the peaches that will ripen soon.

Right now is a busy time at the orchard. The Worthingtons spend their days chasing from one side to another, checking on a vegetable here and a flower there to ensure everything is growing properly.  On the far southwest side of the property, black plastic laid in rows helps keep the soil moist and warm for the next crops that will be planted.  Later in the summer, watermelons will grow here, along with peppers and gourds.

Watermelons are reliably slow growers, Jody noted. He uses a golf cart to get around Worthington Orchards and quipped, “I haven’t seen a watermelon I couldn’t outrun.”

The Worthingtons, married for almost 50 years, started the operation as a peach orchard in 1984 when their son, Carl, was a sophomore in high school. They hoped it would help him earn money to pay for college and keep him busy.

Some years brought hard freezes. Over time the Worthingtons decided to diversify the orchard to “overcome the adversities of fickle Texas weather.” They added summer vegetables and in 2000 put in a second orchard. A few years later they installed the trellised blackberry bushes.

Now city folks and country dwellers come from miles away for the farm-fresh produce. Worthington Orchards usually opens the first week of April and production reaches its peak in July. The farm usually closes after the first week in August. Then preparations start all over again for the next growing season.

Mary also cultivates flowers such as liatris, cannas, zinnias and day lilies. She originally planted them to add color to the place so that people would see them and want to stop.

Then customers began asking her: ““I like that flower.  Have you got any?”

Now she keeps flowers on hand for customers to buy.  One of the most popular flowers is the fragrant white tuberose often used in weddings. They also sell the tubers of this flower for planting.

On a recent visit, a kaleidoscope of color dazzled the eyes as hot-pink cosmos, yellow marigolds, red salvia, white snapdragons, pink begonias and purple petunias blazed from planters.

“Did you tell her about the chickens?”  Mary asked her husband. “They’re your babies.”

She was referring to the resident rooster named Brewster and a handful of hens and chicks.  The couple keeps them around because children enjoy seeing them.  The Worthingtons said they are amazed that some customers from the city have never seen a live chicken before. Brewster the rooster just showed up at the farm and “takes on airs of running the place,” they added. Now he’s part of the farm family.

The Worthingtons offer tours of the farm and encourage school field trips and visits by family groups and garden clubs. Come celebrate the beauty of spring, the promise of summer and the bounty from recent rains and sunshine at this peaceful country retreat.

Worthington Orchards is located at 2909 Highway 67/377. Open Tuesday to Saturday from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Sunday from 1 p.m. to 6 p.m. Closed Mondays. No charge to visit the orchards or gift shop. Produce already picked is available for purchase. Customers may buy a cardboard container for 50 cents, good all growing season, for their own picking, or they can bring plastic bags. For more information, call 254-879-2400 or visit www.worthingtonorchards.com.

The Texan News Service is a project of the Tarleton State University journalism program.