Sweet berries of summer
When Martha Brookshire starts down a row of raspberries, the plants enclose her petite, slightly stooped frame.
The 84-year-old plucks berries from her patch starting at dawn. By the time most people begin their workday commute, Brookshire has filled several flats with berries.
Her customers – all from word-of-mouth – swear Brookshire’s raspberries are among the biggest and sweetest in Spokane Valley.
“They’re the prettiest berries I’ve ever had. They’re just beautiful,” said Carrie Martin, who picked up a flat of berries earlier this week.
Brookshire said she expects to get a good crop of berries this year. In past years, Brookshire sold her berries at local fruit stands. This year, she’s built up a loyal clientele and will likely sell all her berries to existing customers.
Martin used the berries to make a dozen jars of jam and still had extra to freeze and give away. Martin heard about Brookshire’s berries from a fellow resident of Holman Gardens, a retirement center. She paid $18 for the flat.
“I enjoyed them, and I enjoyed her,” Martin said of Brookshire. “She had a lot of enthusiasm about her produce.”
Brookshire said gardening keeps her spry. In addition to berries, she sells perennials each spring.
The berries are more than just a hobby. Brookshire tithes part of her earnings to the church and uses most of the rest to pay bills. If any money is left over, she uses it “for fun.”
“I always feel the Lord blesses my berries. This is part of my livelihood,” Brookshire said.
It’s also quickly becoming a rarity in the increasingly suburban Greenacres. When Brookshire and her husband moved their family to the neighborhood nearly 60 years ago, large gardens and orchards were a common sight. These days, it’s not unusual to see a new housing development fill up a former field.
“Now, it’s a rare occasion to find a place where they raise berries or have much of a garden,” Brookshire said.
Janet Fitzpatrick works in a chiropractic office just a few blocks from Brookshire’s patch on Greenacres Road. She buys a flat of berries per week throughout the season, freezing some and giving away others.
On a dark winter day, Brookshire’s thawed berries remind the Fitzpatrick family of summer.
“They’re huge and they’re sweet and they’re wonderful,” Fitzpatrick said.