Berry Hill Orchard LLC

01/26/2024

Tonya DeVries-Morse
5/8/1960 to 1/25/2024

Tonya passed away on January 25, 2024, at home with family.

A celebration of her life will be held at Ward Van Slyke Colonial Chapel in Clear Lake, Iowa March 2nd at 1 o'clock.

Tonya was born in Blue Island, Illinois, on Mother's Day 1960 to Keith and Sharon (Clark) DeVries. While an infant, her family moved to Clear Lake, then to Ventura. She attended school from kindergarten through graduation at Ventura where she participated in band, choir, softball, track, basketball, and Honor Society. Her favorite high school classes were English and photojournalism.

Immediately after graduation from VHS, she attended the American Institute of Business in Des Moines and earned an associate's degree in court reporting. She worked as a freelance court reporter for Cassel, Inc., in Sioux City for four years. In 1984 she accepted a position as an official court reporter for the State of Iowa and served the public for 39 years in Judicial Districts 3A and 2A, retiring in the Spring of 2023. Her love of libraries and reading led her to also work as a part-time library clerk for 17 years.

She married her best friend and love of her life, Tom, in 1980. Together they were blessed with two sons, Tony and Tyler.

Her hobbies included gardening, reading, walking, nature, photography, movies, and writing. She loved sharing food, garden produce and flowers. At age 50 she showed her boys that you are never too old to learn new things by completing a motorcycle safety course and riding her own motorcycle. Her most favorite way to spend free time, though, was always with her family.

She and her husband have an Aronia berry orchard, Berry Hill Orchard LLC, near Fertile. She was proud to help grow chemical-free, healthy berries for the public, enjoyed seeing customers during annual u-pick events, and developing and sharing Aronia berry recipes.

She was a member of the Clear Lake Friendly Garden Club.

Surviving her is her husband of 43 years, Tom Morse; son Tony (Suzanne) and grandchildren Isabella, Kaiden, and Henry; son Tyler; sister Tami; and stepdad, Bob Godfrey.

Preceding her were her grandparents, Minert and Leota DeVries, and Jay and Viola Clark; her mom, Sharon DeVries-Godfrey; and her dad, Keith DeVries.

11/23/2023

10/22/2023

Sunrise from Berry Hill Orchard near Fertile, Iowa. Their Aronia berry bushes are showing off their beautiful red Autumn color.
Can you imagine watching sunrise on that bench?
Thanks for sharing, Tonya Morse.

10/21/2023

"In every walk with nature, one receives far more than he seeks." John Muir.

We are grateful to have state parks in our area, one of which is Pilot K**b State Park near Forest City. With its plentiful woods, hiking trails, horseback riding trails, camping, fishing, picnic areas, and an observation tower, it's a nature lover's paradise.

We took a break from chores this afternoon to take in the Autumn colors of the park and to climb up to the top of the observation tower.

Take some time to enjoy the outdoors during this lovely Autumn season. 🍂

10/21/2023

Thanks to Healthy Harvest of North Iowa for featuring our orchard today. We appreciate all their organization does to promote healthy food from small local producers in north Iowa!

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10/20/2023

What a gorgeous day! This morning we enjoyed the sunrise coming up over the Aronia berry orchard. The berry bushes are in their Autumn glory with the leaves turning various shades of red. So beautiful! We still have some perennial flowers blooming here to enjoy as well. We will spend the day on outdoor projects today and are grateful for the nice weather to get them accomplished. 🌞

10/14/2023

Empanadas with Aronia berries!

We have never made empanadas until today. What took us so long? They're incredible.

We looked online for recipes and then took bits and pieces from several and came up with our own version containing the ingredients we prefer.

Ours were made with puff pastry filled with sauteed onions, peppers, celery, carrots, cooked ground beef, green olives, spices, and
our frozen Aronia berries too! They were delicious and filling.

Another day, another way to create something delicious with Aronia berries! 😋

09/28/2023

Homemade gingersnap cookies with Aronia berry icing. Yum, yum!

09/27/2023

The Aronia Berry Man made a pot of his yummy secret recipe homemade vegetable beef soup for us for lunch today. I'm a lucky girl! ☺️

It's not only incredibly delicious, but chock-full of good-for-you vitamins and antioxidants, containing lots of fresh veggies, V-8 juice, and our Aronia berries. (Add frozen Aronia berries to the soup pot about 10 minutes before serving.) He did reveal that he added one cup of our Aronia berry wine to the soup too. 😋

Add frozen Aronia berries to your veggie beef soup and chili. You'll love it!

09/19/2023

This morning at the orchard, we baked up a batch of homemade apple cider Aronia berry donuts.

Served warm, dipped in sugar and cinnamon, they're a soft, flavorful Autumn treat 😋.

(By request, recipe and our notes are posted in a comment below.)

08/31/2023

U-PICK UPDATE!

We've had some folks ask if we'll have another u-pick this Labor Day weekend.

Although it's been typical in the past that we have a u-pick on Labor Day weekend, and we would love to offer to do so again this year, it will NOT be happening this weekend due to the following: Our Aronia berries ripened earlier than usual this season, so our u-pick events started earlier (we've already held two). In addition, we've got yet another heat wave with near record high temps forecasted for this holiday weekend.

If you missed our u-pick this year, or if you did pick berries but would like more, we'd be happy to pick our Aronia berries for you. Message us through this page or email to make arrangements.

We again thank everyone who visited the orchard to pick berries this year. We hope you enjoy creating delicious things to eat and drink with them! Thanks also to all of you who recommended us and shared our posts. We appreciate it!