Mayhaw trees for sale in East Texas! We sell Grafted Mayhaw Trees grown from abundant producing varieties developed in Louisiana from decades of research. Supplies are limited, so contact us soon with your order! Trees are $40 each and are 4 to 6 ft. tall. You can pick them up in pots here in Chandler, TX, or we can ship up to 6 trees to most locations for around $30. You can order by emailing us, calling us, or sending us a message on Facebook. We will write up your order, accept your payment via PayPal, then pull your trees from pots, wrap in moisture and ship the same day. We use UPS for shipping and your trees usually arrive in two days, with planting instructions and a care sheet including spray regimens. Order now as supplies are limited, and we usually sell out by Spring!

Contact: Steve Ford 318-237-4699 homeharvestfarm@gmail.com

or go to Home Harvest Farm page on Facebook and message us there.

Just as the Christmas lights are going up, Fall is in its full glory here in East Texas! With the cooler temperatures, we can now start shipping our grafted mayhaw trees to you! Of course, if you are in driving distance, you are welcome to pick up your trees in pots here in Chandler.

Our grafted trees are 4 to 6 ft. tall, from abundant producing Louisiana varieties, are disease resistant, and will produce for many years! They are $40 each and we can ship up to 6 trees per box to most locations for about $30. We accept PayPal or Venmo for shipped trees, and you can pay with cash or check as well if you want to pick them up in pots.

To order:

1. message us on Facebook and we will send you an invoice, take your payment, and ship the same day.
2. email us at homeharvestfarm@gmail.com and we email your invoice if you prefer.
3. call or text us at 318-237-4699 and we can take your order, text you an invoice, accept your payment, and ship your trees, or have them ready for you to pick up.

Quantities are limited and we will sell out by Spring, so contact us while supplies last!

In spite of the arctic freeze of 2021 and an unusually hot and dry summer, we will have a nice crop of trees for sale this fall! Our trees are growing, and we will begin selling them late November, early December. They will be 4 to 6 ft. tall, and you can pick them up in the pots, or we can ship them with wrapped root balls to you. Although shipping costs have risen, we can ship up to six trees to most locations for around $35 shipping. If you have already contacted us about trees, we will reach out to you when they are close to ready. We can start shipping them as soon as the weather cools down and they begin to go dormant.

For information on ordering trees you can contact us here:

homeharvestfarm@gmail.com

ph: 318-237-4699

Watch our FB page, Home Harvest Farm for updates on when trees are ready for sale!

Mayhaw Jelly Recipe  (makes 60 oz.)

6 cups of prepared mayhaw juice

4 cups sugar

1 pkg. Sure Jell fruit pectin (PINK BOX FOR LOWER SUGAR RECIPE)

½ tsp. butter or margarine

1. Put juice in a  large heavy pot. Measure the exact amount of sugar into a separate large bowl. (DO NOT REDUCE THE SUGAR IN RECIPE SINCE THAT WILL RESULT IN SET FAILURES) We find the lower sugar recipe works best for mayhaws and allows for that delicious sweet, tart taste. 
2. Combine ¼ c. sugar from the measured amount with one pkg. Sure Jell for lower sugar recipe, in a small bowl. Stir into the juice. Add butter or margarine to reduce foaming.
3. Bring mixture to a full rolling boil (a boil that does not stop bubbling when stirred) on high heat, stirring constantly. 
4. Stir in remaining measured sugar.  Return to a full rolling boil and boil for exactly 1 minute, stirring constantly. Remove from heat. Skim any foam with a metal spoon. Jelly should be a clear red color, darkness depending on the redness of the berries before cooking. 
5. Ladle immediately into prepared jars, filling to within ¼ inch of top, or lower if desired. Wipe jar rims and threads, cover with hot lids and screw bands tightly. 
6. Let sealed jars stand to cool for several hours. Lids will pop when vacuum is created by cooling jelly, making for a good seal. Store canned jelly in a climate controlled place for a year or more. Refrigerate after opening. 

Tips for jelly success:

1. Scald jars with boiling water before use. Set hot jars on a towel to dry while cooking jelly. Use a jar funnel to avoid getting jelly on the rim and threads of jars. Fill jars while they are sitting on the towel to help deal with sticky spills. You can use a variety of jar sizes, but we find the ½ pint  (8 oz. ) to work best. The  4 oz. size is also handy for gift giving.
2. Heat flat lids in a small pan of water while jelly cooks. Place hot lids directly onto  jars with a magnetic tool, then screw on bands tight. 
3. Follow the steps below for preparing the mayhaw juice for making jelly. 

Juicing mayhaws by hand:

1. Wash and remove excessive stems and leaves from picked berries, but it is not necessary to remove them all.  Place fresh or frozen berries in a large pot. (Frozen berries produce more juice than freshly picked and can be kept in the freezer for a year or more).
2.  Add water just until you can see it, not covering the berries. Bring to a boil and cook for about 30 minutes. Let cool.
3. Using a large bowl lined with a large square of cheesecloth, pour cooked berries and juice into the cheesecloth. Gather cloth around berries and squeeze until no juice comes out. Hang cloth with berries over the bowl for a while, if possible, for more juice to drip out. Discard berry pulp, seeds and stems. 
4. Measure juice into 6 cup batches for making jelly. You may add up to ½ cup water to make it exactly 6 cups per batch, but be careful not to add too much water per batch, or the juice will be weak and the jelly not as good.One gallon of frozen mayhaw berries yields approximately 7cups of juice.  If not making jelly right away, freeze juice in 6 cup portions for a year or more, then just take out and thaw in the pan over low heat before making jelly. 
5. If juicing a large quantity of berries, measure the total number of cups of juice you have when finished, and add enough water to be able to divide them into 6 cup portions for freezing. This gives you the option of easily making jelly whenever you need it, not just at harvest time 

There are pieces of canning equipment that make the juicing easier, including a cone strainer and rack with a wooden pestle for squeezing the juice, but it still needs to be filtered through cheesecloth. There are also alternative ways to juice the mayhaws other than by hand, including stove top steamers that collect the juice in a separate compartment. We happen to have a sausage stuffer, and use it to press the juice out of the cooked berries into the sausage tunnel, then let it drain into a cheesecloth covered bowl or bucket. 

The signs of Spring on the farm bring new hope this year after last year’s arctic temperatures. It’s a busy time of planting, grafting, and potting, but also of enjoying the new life and the promise of more to come! Look for updates as our new grafts grow into what we hope will be a nice crop of trees for sale this fall and winter.

Blossoms of all kinds are a welcome sight and include dahlias, lilies, azaleas, and wildflowers and more.

And the garden joins in with new potatoes and green onions coming up.

WE ARE NOW SOLD OUT FOR THIS YEAR, BUT WILL HAVE MORE NEXT SPRING! have a limited supply of fresh root stock for sale. The root stock is from Arkansas growers, and we are selling seedlings for $1.00 each up to 20, and $.75 each 20 or more, plus shipping. We accept payment on PayPal or Venmo. Shipping only through April, so order soon! Contact us by phone, email, or message us on Facebook at Home Harvest Farm!

Unfortunately, we do not have any trees for sale this year due to the arctic temperatures we endured in February. We will have 600-700 nice trees next year, so if you can be patient, we will be your source! Check out our ads on Facebook starting next Fall!

Farmers who wait for perfect weather never plant. If they watch every cloud, they never harvest.

Ecclesiastes 11:4

This has certainly rung true for the growing season of 2021 so far! After the arctic temperatures that held us all captive for many days in February, we started to fan the flames of hope when our orchard trees began to bud and bloom and the garden seeds we planted started to grow. Unfortunately, much of our potted root stock did not survive the extreme cold, and many of our young grafted trees from 2020 died as well. Thankfully we were able to find more root stock that we have growing for grafting Spring 2022, but our new grafts are low in number this year. We have been blessed with more than normal rainfall since the beginning of May, and the mayhaw trees are loving it, along with the garden, the insects, and the grass!

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

We will post here when trees are ready to be shipped in early December, or as soon as the weather cools down. There will be a limited supply and we already have buyers asking about them, so we don’t expect them to last long once they are ready. Our trees will be $35 each this year and we can ship up to six trees to most locations for around $25. We pull from the pots, wrap in moisture, and ship the same day. We will also post ads on our Facebook page when trees are ready. We wish you a productive growing season and a fruitful summer!

There is nothing more refreshing than seeing everything start to grow! Although the brutal week of of zero and below temperatures in February took its toll, our orchard trees and most of our hold over grafts from last spring survived it. As we replace some of our root stock that did not make it, and move into the full swing of spring grafting, we are thankful for every green leaf and blossom we see anywhere!

For those of you who are learning to graft trees, or want to learn, we would like to share the process, along with some essential tools, supplies and and tips that may be helpful. When we first started, we had the privilege of learning from an expert, Mr. Billy Craft, and we have learned more and more each year by talking to others, doing research, and of course by grafting! We have grafted up to 1250 trees in a season, but have settled at 600 to 700 new grafts each year as a norm. We are always working to increase our successful graft rate and here are a few tips that we have learned:

1. Get the essential tools: good quality snips, grafting tools for V grafts, grafting knife. (We purchase most of ours off Amazon) Keep all tools sanitary by cleaning often with alcohol. We keep a supply of cotton balls with our tools for this purpose, and clean before each use, and again after grafting 25 or more trees.
2. Use first quality scions that have been sealed and kept cool. Dipping scions in wax after cutting helps preserve freshness, then wrap in moist paper towels and zip lock bags and store in a refrigerator until you need them. Wrap with Parafilm before using. We keep our scions cool in an ice chest during the grafting process.
3. Use plenty of Parafilm (nursery grafting tape) when wrapping scions or wrapping the finished graft. Wrap tight with grafting rubber bands first, to hold scion to root stock in the graft.
4. Graft to first quality root stock that has been grown for at least a year to develop a healthy root ball.
5. Use a good quality potting soil that retains moisture, pots that are big enough to allow root growth (we use 3 gallon pots), and a good slow release fertilizer—we use Scott’s Osmocote.
6. Stick new grafts with cane to prevent damage from birds or accidents. Later, the cane will serve as support for growing trees. Use Tree Wound to cover any cuts or open areas on the root stock.
7. Use color coded tags to mark different varieties.

• 

Here are a few short videos describing the grafting process:

”The best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago. The second best time is now.”

Anonymous

Someone once said, “He who plants a tree, plants a hope”. As we all try to recover from the arctic temperatures of February, 2021, our hope lies in next year’s crop of grafted Mayhaws. It’s too early to access all the damage, but we have root stock ready to graft with the scion wood harvested from Billy Craft’s trees in Woodworth, Louisiana. The coming weeks will tell if our hopes will be fulfilled.

Other than the freeze recovery, February has been about spraying. We have sprayed our grafted trees and our orchard trees every seven to ten days for fire blight and cedar rust, and will continue into the middle of March. Living in East Texas surrounded by cedar trees, is one reason for our frequency of spraying. Other locations may not need that much application. We recommend Rally (myclobutinil) for cedar rust, and Kocide 3000 (copper hydroxide) for fire blight.

Check back here later in March for updates on grafted trees for this fall, and visit our Facebook page for ongoing news.

KEEP THE HOPE ALIVE!

Home Harvest Farm, Chandler, Texas