Carrying on a sweet tradition at Timberock U-Pick blueberries

A charming hand-painted sign sits alongside the gentle hills and quiet countryside of N Highway in Brixey, welcoming motorists to a local spot that’s as sweet-as-summer, the Timberock U-Pick Blueberry Farm, where rows upon rows of sun-dappled bushes hang heavy with fruit, ripe for the picking, just as they have since 1980. 

The blueberry farm, which was first planted by Arne and Shirley Gustafson 45 years ago, is now being cared for by current owners Gus and Marlo Breton, who welcome locals and visitors alike to make their own memories in the field.

The year’s season is winding down, but there is still time to pick your own blueberries at the farm. The farm’s open times offer some reprieve from the hot summer days with picking times Saturday mornings and Tuesday and Thursday evenings when temperatures are cooler and a nice breeze sometimes blows through. 

Timberock Farm will be open these remaining days for you-pick blueberries:

• 4 to 7 p.m. Thursday, June 26; $7/quart or $25 gallon 

• 8 to 11 a.m. Saturday, June 28; $7/quart or $25 gallon

• 4 to 7 p.m. Tuesday, July 1; $6 quart or $15 gallon

• 4 to 7 p.m. Thursday, July 3; $6 quart or $15 gallon

• 8 to 11 a.m. Saturday, July 5; $6 quart or $15 gallon

• 4 to 7 p.m. Tuesday, July 8; $5 quart or $12 gallon

Blueberries are priced by week, with larger and more plentiful blueberries in the early season priced higher than the end-of-season fruit, when the berry sizes are a little smaller, the Bretons say.

The farm is located off N Highway, about a mile and a half north of Smith Chapel Church and Cemetery. Gus says he is sometimes out weedeating or doing other work in the blueberry patch, so guests who arrive at an unmanned canopy tent should honk their horn, and he’ll meet them there. Buckets are provided for those picking, along with large plastic bags to take berries home in, so there is no need to bring your own. For more information, visit TimberockGardens.com, search Facebook Marketplace for “Timberock U-Pick” or call Gus at 603-396-1092.

According to articles in the Ozark County Times archives, Arne and Shirley planted the first bushes at the Timberock in 1980, after they decided they wanted to operate a blueberry farm. They sent in soil samples to the University of Missouri Extension Service, which analyzed the dirt - and promptly advised the couple to just pitch the idea altogether.

Well, that advice came a little too late, as the Gustafsons had already planted 2,000 Blueray and Collins variety bushes in what the Extension Service had analyzed as not-so-great ground for blueberries. Whether the experts supported the idea or not, the Timberock Blueberry Farm had already been born, and the Gustafsons were determined to nurture their dream to maturity.

But making that dream a reality took a lot of hard work. They acidified and fertilized the land, then installed drip irrigation lines to water the thirsty plants, which demanded about a gallon of water a day. They said on average, they used about 2,500 gallons of water daily to support the crop. They spread sawdust and wood chips around the bushes for mulch, and worked to save the berries from all the insects and animals who loved the sweet fruit as much as the customers. One thing that Gustafsons never did was spray chemicals, they said. The blueberries were planted and maintained using organic methods. 

In their first few years, the Gustafsons suffered through infestations of weeds, bugs and attacks by crows, deer and drought, but in 1985, came a year of rain, and the blueberries grew fat and plump, weighing down the branches. That year, the pickers also came in record numbers, as the reputation spread of Ozark County’s first blueberry farm (In 1985, Dick Eckart opened the second Ozark County blueberry farm at Eckart’s Blueberry Farm in Dora, which he and wife Tomi operated for more than 30 years until failing health required them to close the blueberry patch in 2019).

In 1985, the Gustafsons estimated that their bushes yielded two gallons apiece, double what they produced in a dry year, even with the drip irrigation they installed.

In its earliest years the Gustafsons offered bagged blueberries that they picked for customers to buy, but five years into the venture, more than half of their berries were being picked by the customers themselves in the new wave of “you-pick” style berry farms that sold customers on not only the berries themselves but the experience of harvesting their own fruit.

Many of the pickers were out-of-state tourists who enjoyed the charm of picking blueberries on a sweet little farm in the middle of nowhere. Others, mostly the locals who had already endured too many hot, humid days by the time picking season rolled around to find much stock in the charm of the experience, instead valued the sweet, delicious taste of the homegrown berries from just down the road. 

In the years they operated the farm, the Gustafsons built a tradition for many families, who brought generations of offspring to the patch each year to make cherished memories picking the sweet berries. 

Online records show that Arne and Shirley divorced in 2006; however, Arne remained at the farm and offered you-pick blueberries up until the very end. An Ozark County Times article said the farm closed shortly before Arne died in January 2017, at age 95. A former neighbor said Shirley moved out after the divorce, but they continued to be friends and she lived nearby until moving into the Gainesville Health Care Center. 

Meanwhile, during the decades the Gustafsons operated the farm, Gus Breton was far from Ozark County, living a much different life. Born in Quebec, Gus and his family moved to the northeast United States when he was 4. 

“I was born... to a French-speaking family. As illegal aliens, we migrated to Manchester, New Hampshire, in 1967, and were caught at the border in 1968 while going back to visit family,” Gus told the Times. “At that time, my dad spoke only French but had already started his paperwork in Boston to get his green card. So, we were deported, but we were able to come back two months later after everything was approved and finalized.”

Gus says he grew up in New Hampshire and worked as a union carpenter in Boston, situated about 45 minutes from his home. After retiring, he moved to Pine City, Minnesota, in 2015, and bought a charter bus, which he gutted and renovated into living quarters. He spent four years in Minnesota, enduring the cold winters, before he decided to relocate to somewhere a little more temperate. After much research, he narrowed his search to a stretch of land between Branson and West Plains.  

After finding the Timberock Farm posted on an online realtor website, Gus purchased the land in March 2020. He cleared enough of the property to park the bus and lived in it while he worked to use what little was left of the Gustafsons’ home structure to rebuild a house for himself. Around that time, Gus’s girlfriend, Penni McGowen, sold her home in Neosho and moved to Brixey with Gus, helping to clean up the property.

“The blueberry field was advertised as barely there, and it was true. It was covered in blackberries [and] trees. And it hadn’t really been maintained since probably 2009,” Gus told the Times.

But, Gus and Penni knew it could be revived, and they set their minds to doing just that. Throughout 2020, the couple worked to clear overgrown cedars that had grown tall, shading the blueberry fields most of the day. Removing the overgrowth helped the blueberries get the sunlight they desperately needed. Gus also purchased planer shavings from the Luna Saw Mill in Dora and was given trout remains from Rockbridge Rainbow Trout Ranch and leftover produce remains from Town & County, which he mixed with his own homemade bio-char to create a rich, natural fertilizer. 

“I mixed it every month or two with the bulldozer. Then we added all that homemade compost to the field in 2023,” Gus said. They also worked to amend the PH level in the field, adding sulfur, bentonite, boron, fish guts, bio-char and Epson salt. He said he plans to add more sulfur after the picking season is over this year. 

Penni and Gus opened the farm for U-Pick in 2021 with about 600 mature blueberry bushes available. In 2022, they continued to improve the growing conditions, fighting back a mess of encroaching wild blackberry brambles and adding about 100 more blueberry bushes. That year was especially hot and dry, and the couple added a sprinkler system to help water the plants, as the original drip irrigation was no longer functional. 

“The field has done very well, being slightly damaged by last year’s Cicada outbreak, which, fortunately, wiped out the Japanese beetles to make 2025 the best year yet,” Gus said. “We’ve gotten lots of rain, which has really been good for the size of the berries. The blueberries are massive.”

Penni and Gus split ways in 2024, although they remain good friends. Gus then met Batesville, Arkansas, native Marlo Mason in March of this year, and the pair hit it off. They married earlier this month in a small ceremony with close family and friends. 

And, as fate would have it, Marlo loves blueberries too. “I don’t garden, but I just love working in the blueberry field,” she said. 

The couple says they pick and eat “as much as we can” and when they can’t keep up, they put a post up on Facebook Marketplace to reach new customers who might want to come pick their own berries. 

Gus says they are continuing to work on the property. He put his construction skills to use and has continued renovating the house, where they now live. Although officially retired, Gus says he keeps busy working on the house and the farm. “The siding on the house should be done this summer, allowing me to work more on the interior this fall and to put all my efforts in the blueberry field in 2026,” he said. “Arne had drip lines for irrigation, which were eventually chewed up by rodents. I plan to replace those drip lines next summer to help keep the weeds to a minimum.”

In the process of renovating the home structure, Gus has unearthed treasured old photos that show Timberock in its early years, Arne and Shirley smiling amid the blueberry farm they worked so hard to establish. Gus said he recently visited Shirley at Gainesville Healthcare Center, where he brought a box of over 100 old pictures he’s salvaged from the home before it was bulldozed. He said they had a wonderful visit. “She’s a hoot and was still sharp-witted and able to hold a good conversation with Marlo and me.” 

The conversation was a bridging of chapters for Timberock, a conversation between owners of different times, but with a shared fondness for the farm and all its history. From Arne and Shirley’s first stubborn planting against the experts’ advice to Gus and Marlo’s continued love and care, the farm carries with it a story of the grit and determination that Ozark Countians are so often known for. And for those who continue to come to Timberock each year to fill their buckets with blueberries, they’re becoming part of that story, one sweet harvest at a time.