I recently posted two blogs on how to make agarita jelly... Oh...you missed them??? Guess you're not using agarita jelly recipes to close that deal this week...eh? In any event...they actually got some great responses including folks from "outside" the Active Rain community. (Yes...it actually works!)
One of the response I got was from a fellow realtor in Leakey, Texas, a little town on the Frio River about an hour from where I live in Boerne, TX. He recently bought a 59 acre place and saw that his land was covered with a bumper crop of agarita berries. He had decided to make jelly himself and found my "how to" on how to make agarita jelly on Active Rain. Here was part of his first email to me:
Claire:
I needed your recipe. The agarita berry crop was HUGE this year out near Leakey where I have some property. Never saw so many berries before, and a couple of weeks later than usual. I used the front-end loader on the John Deere to encroach under the bush, then did the broomstick thrash to knock the berries into the loader. In less than 2 hours I had more than 5 gallons of the berries (plus leaves and assorted junk).
There is a caveat that the wood part of the agarita is toxic, so I did not know whether I had to pluck all the stems off the berries. Your recipe makes clear what I need to do (remove major wood and leaves, and don't sweat the tiny little stems).
This stuff is GOOD. Thanks for ther help.
Regards, Dave Crowley
Not only did I get a nice response...but I got more knowledge about the agarita berry, and more important, how I could harvest them better. I asked Dave to send me pictures of his jelly and he sent me back the "fruits of his labor". Not quite jelly yet...but great pictures of his bushes and his five gallon bucket of berries. I would be lying if I said I wasn't jealous. He may not realize it...but he has about 50-60 jars of jelly sitting in that bucket.
Here's a part of his last email to me and his pictures.
For reference, if you and your other half do get to work with a loader bucket, bring a short-tined rake with you. After whacking a bush, pull the tractor back from the bush and you can rake a large amount of the larger leaf litter out of the bucket. If you're really persnickety, bring a foxtail brush to sweep out more of the smaller stuff. A dust pan is used to scoop the 'good stuff' out and into your berry pail. Enjoy the photos. Regards, Dave Crowley
I feel like I have made a new friend and learned something new to boot! Active Rain does work...on more levels than we can imagine. If you think you don't have something to say, you're probably wrong. It doesn't all have to be about real estate. The goal is connections... From connections comes referrals... From referrals come sales. Who da thunk an agarita berry could do so much?
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