By Dave Woods

dwoods@joplinglobe.com

LAMPE, Mo. — On just about any summer weekend morning, customers come from all over the Ozarks to stand in line and wait for a white bakery box filled with Persimmon Hill Farm’s famous “Blueberry Thunder Muffins.”

“We come here all of the time,” Mary Little, a 70-year-old homemaker from Forsyth, said as she waited for her fix of fresh-baked goods. “The muffins are great and the atmosphere is really relaxing.”



Mary said she uses the fresh berries she buys at the farm to make her own pies and jams, too.

“The fruit here is the best,” she bragged. “It’s fun to come out and pick it yourself. It reminds me of being a kid … and that was a long time ago.”

Mary’s husband, Don, 76, said he just likes coming out to feel the breeze and eat the berries.

“It’s wonderful here,” he said. “We picked about 10 pounds today. Not bad for a couple of old geezers,” he added with a laugh.

Martha Bohner, who co-owns Persimmon Hill Farm with her husband, Earnie, said it’s not uncommon to sell 1,500 of the fist-sized muffins on a busy day.

‘An experience thing ’

The Bohners opened Persimmon Hill Farm, 367 Persimmon Hill Lane near Lampe, in 1982.

Back then, it was just Martha, Earnie, a few blueberry plants and a dream.

Today, the 75-acre tract boasts 4.5 acres of blueberries, an acre of blackberries, some gooseberries and 10,000 seeded shiitake mushroom logs. Persimmon and plum trees dot the property and a rustic wooden farm store greets new customers and old friends alike. From the porch of the store, customers can peer into the certified industrial kitchen Martha uses to produce the many products the company sells at the store and online.

The Bohners and their small staff produce gourmet fruit jams and butters, barbecue sauces, shiitake mushrooms, gourmet shiitake products and farm-fresh berry muffins and cobblers.

Earnie said he’s proud of what he and his wife have built together.

“We sell blueberries to keep the farm going, but really it’s more of an experience thing,” he said. “It’s cheap entertainment. We have created an environment where families can have fun together.”

‘A very berry-berry taste’

Martha, a self-described “foodie,” said that in the beginning they collaborated with a chef friend to create some of the blueberry products they offer.

“We worked in an industrial kitchen that we rented,” Martha said. “We would go in to work after the restaurant closed at 1 a.m. and work all night.”

Her vision, she said, was simple.

“Our philosophy was to have a very berry-berry taste,” she said. “The fruit is always the first ingredient on our product labels. It’s the main ingredient — never sugar.”

Martha said that she had a lot of help developing the recipes they sell.

“Sometimes people would bring us their favorite blueberry recipes. Many of our favorite recipes have been adapted from those,” she added. “We adapted a really good muffin recipe and then doubled the amount of berries in it ... that’s the secret to a premium experience.”

And, she said, “Blueberries taste better in a muffin or a smoothie than broccoli does.”

More than muffins

Berry muffins and jams are big business for the Bohners, but their butters and barbecue sauces are growing in popularity.

“Apple butter is a favorite that most people like,” Martha said. “It’s slow simmered and has a spicy taste and even texture.”

She said they get requests for persimmon butter from many of their customers. “People who grew up picking persimmons at their family farm really love it.”

Martha said that they are capitalizing on the growing popularity of outdoor grilling.

“Grilling has become very popular ... especially with unique fruit flavors,” she said.

In 1994, their Persimmon Hill Farm Blueberry BBQ Sauce won first place at the American Royal Barbecue contest in Kansas City.

“When you compete against sauces from all over the world and win,” Martha said, “that’s pretty encouraging.”

A perfect combination

While you-pick berries, fresh-baked goods and other specialty products may be the Bohners’ bread and butter during the summer growing season, shiitake mushrooms have proven to be a good year-around addition to their product line.

They sell the fresh Ozarks-grown Japanese mushrooms Earnie cultivates in a climate-controlled building on the property to a dozen Branson-area and Northwest Arkansas restaurants. The tasty ’shrooms are sold fresh, dried, as salad croutons — called “Croutakies” — and also flavor their mushroom soup and jarred shiitake sauce.

“They have so much flavor,” Martha said. “They can transform any old chicken dish into a great gourmet dish.”

She suggests dipping them into some melted butter, sprinkling with garlic salt and then placing them cap down on a medium grill until the edges start to crisp. She also advises leaving the stem on so you have something to pick the mushroom up with when done. Dip them in teriyaki sauce for a different taste, use them in mushroom soup or just sauté them in butter and white wine, she said.

As she stood over a hot grill inside her outdoor screened-in kitchen and preparing shiitake quesadillas for a herd of hungry customers, Martha seemed happy.

“When I’m here, you never know where you will find me ... in the kitchen, picking berries or picking up trash,” she said with a smile. “When we stop and think about what we would rather have done ... nothing comes to mind.”



The following recipes were provided by Martha Bohner or were taken from the “Persimmon Hill Farm Berry Cookbook.”



Blueberry smoothie

1 1/2 cups frozen blueberries

1 cup milk (skim or 2 percent)

2 tablespoons Splenda (or sugar)

2 tablespoons nonfat vanilla yogurt

Pour milk over frozen blueberries. Add Splenda, vanilla yogurt and blend. The frozen blueberries make the mixture slushy and ice cold.



Shiitake mushroom white sauce

1/2 pound fresh shiitake mushrooms

2 cups milk

3 tablespoons butter

4 tablespoons flour

Remove stems from mushrooms and slice caps. Sauté shiitakes in 1 tablespoon butter until soft and set aside. Heat 2 tablespoons butter in medium saucepan until melted. Stir in 4 tablespoons flour with a wire whisk. Add milk, whisking until smooth after each addition. Stir continually until sauce thickens and add shiitake, cooking and stirring for two minutes. Salt and pepper to taste. Use over baked chicken, baked potatoes or pasta.



Mix-in-the-pan berry cobbler

This recipe, while not a traditional type of cobbler, is very quick and easy to prepare. It’s mixed and cooked in one dish, and the batter rises to the top to form a cake-like crust.

1 cup flour

1 cup sugar

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 cup milk

1 teaspoon vanilla

3 cups fresh or frozen berries (or a combination of berries)

1/4 stick butter or margarine

In a 2-quart baking dish or pan, sift together the flour, baking powder and sugar. Stir with a spoon to mix. Add the milk and vanilla and stir to make a thin batter. Pour the berries evenly on top of the batter, and then slice the margarine thinly and distribute it over the top of the batter. Bake at 350 degrees until the batter is golden brown and done in the center.



Baked berry pancake

1 1/2 tablespoons butter or margarine

1/2 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup milk

3/4 cup flour

3 eggs

1 1/2 cups fresh berries or 3/4 cup Persimmon Hill Farm berry jam

1 teaspoon vanilla

Place the butter or margarine in a 10-inch iron skillet, a casserole dish or a shallow, oven-safe dish. Place the skillet in the oven at 450 degrees to melt the butter, but don’t let it brown. In a medium bowl, beat together the eggs and milk. Add the vanilla, flour and salt, and stir to mix the ingredients. When the skillet is hot and the margarine is bubbling, pour the batter into the skillet and return the skillet to the oven. Bake for about 10 minutes. Lower the over temperature to 350 degrees and continue baking 10 to 15 minutes. The sides of the pancake will be high and fluffy, and the center will be firm. Remove the skillet from the oven, and sprinkle the top with fresh whole berries, or spread the top with berry jam. Lightly sprinkle with powdered sugar pressed through a sifter.



Want to go?

For more information about Persimmon Hill Farm, call (800) 333-4159

or visit their Web site at www.persimmonhill.com.