Farm Spotlight: Agriberry

Farmer Anne Geyer

Founded 1998

Location Hanover County

Partner Since 2011

2015 Partner Producer of the Year

GAP Certified

FOUNDED IN 2008, Agriberry Farm is located along the banks of the Pamunkey River in Hanover County, Virginia, just outside of Richmond. Anne Geyer and her family have truly perfected the art of growing strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, peaches, and nectarines. Agriberry’s fruit is some of the best we’ve ever seen at Local Food Hub: a single blackberry is the size of a sugar plum; the raspberries are delicate, sweet, and perfumed with the scent of summer, and the product packaging ensures the delicate berries arrive just as fresh and beautiful as they were picked from the farm.

Anne and her husband, Chuck, have grown berries and tree fruits together in Virginia for over 30 years. Their innovative approach to farm management has led them to develop one of the nation’s only all-fruit CSA programs, as well as a Young Worker Training Program that employs area teens during the summer months. They use Integrated Pest Management strategies to sustain healthful and natural multi-year farm plantings. Agriberry is a low-spray operation, and does not use organophosphates on any fruit grown there.

Agriberry has over 12,000 raspberry and blackberry plants, and are always experimenting with new varieties to find the best for their customers. Anne looks for varieties that thrive in scorching Virginia summers, and that demonstrate productivity and resistance to mildew while transforming sunshine into plump, juicy fruit.  You’ll see Anne and Chuck at many area farmers markets, and both their children also bring Agriberry to regional farmers markets.  We love having their daughter Colleen at the LFH market!

To meet these challenges, Anne designed the business to combine the cultivation of cane fruit (raspberries and blackberries) with a pilot Youth Training Program. She recruits high school and college students on summer break, and hires them to harvest berries and take them to market. Along the way, they learn to care for the canes, safe harvesting and handling procedures, marketing techniques, and the impression that a perfectly ripe, juicy blackberry can make at a busy market.

“We plant new varieties to see how they do,” Anne says of the 12,000 raspberry and blackberry plants she cultivates in Hanover County, VA. “If we find a winner, we’ll be on the cutting edge of berry production.” She is looking for varieties that thrive in scorching Virginia summers, demonstrating productivity and resistance to mildew while transforming sunshine into plump, juicy purple-black berries. Agriberry is a low-spray operation, and does not use organophosphates on any fruit grown there.

Products

blackberries, blueberries, raspberries, strawberries