We are Sabra Farrell and Toby and Penny Simmons and we welcome you to Beulah Land Berries!

About the Farm

This berry farm started as a dream to utilize and make productive again this wonderful piece of land that God has blessed us with.

Once a productive little dairy farm owned and run by Coy and Thelma Davis, the farm had for many years lay fallow and unused. In the late 1990s, God started stirring our hearts to do something productive with the land and although we had no equipment, no experience and not even really any idea of what to do, we listened.

We listened, and we waited. We explored many ideas, but nothing we investigated seemed the right thing for us to do, so we waited on God’s timing. We were confident that He would lead us where we needed to go, when we needed to go there. It seemed He had other things for us to do right then. So we waited.

Then, in 2002, the time was finally right to get serious about farming and He led us to start a blackberry farm. So we did! We trusted Him and got some equipment, had some of the land cleared and started preparing the soil to receive the fist planting of about 600 blackberry plants in Spring 2003.

Now we are so excited to be able to tell you that this year (2005) will be our first commercial crop and we are once again trusting God to lead us through this new phase of the adventure He started us on so many years ago with that first urging to use the land – His land.

We trust that this will be the first of many years to come that you can join us in enjoying this beautiful farm as we continue to grow and expand.

Oh, and what’s with that name? More to come about that later.

About the People

Sabra Farrell – Mother of Penny Simmons, mother-in-law of Toby Simmons, and grandmother of Sadie, Katie, Jamie, Molly and Maggie Simmons, who Sabra describes as the “blackberry farmers par excel lance.” She is retired from working as a secretary in a law firm and bringing up three beautiful daughters. She enjoys painting and being a grandmother to eleven delightful grandchildren plus four great-grandsons and a fifth great-grandchild will join the family in August.

"Since the Lord has given me the pleasure and privilege of living on this beautiful land, I have wanted to use it to His glory. When my daughter and her husband and children expressed an interest in growing berries on the land, it seemed that this would be the wisest use of what God has loaned to us. In the summer of 2003 we began by clearing a couple of acres and preparing it for our dream. In the spring of 2004 we planted fourteen rows of blackberries which were developed by the University of Arkansas Fruit Breeding Program under the direction of Dr. John R. Clark, Professor. I’ll have to tell you that watching my children and grandchildren out working in the berry field is one of my greatest pleasures only exceeded by being able to be out there working with them.
    The name of our farm came to us after reading Isaiah 62 and realizing that God is the Creator of ALL the land and everything in it. It is only right that, just as the Israelites considered the Creator married to the land He promised to them, we too shall consider our Creator married to the land He is allowing us to manage for Him, and our land is married to Him. Thus “Beulah,” which means “married,” is the logical and most appropriate name for what He has provided."

Toby and Penny Simmons – Penny is Sabra’s daughter. Toby and Penny have been married and living on the farm since 1986. They have five wonderful children: Sadie, Kate, Jamie, Molly and Maggie. They home school their children and are active members of Fellowship Bible Church of Little Rock having taught Sunday School there for many years.

Toby’s day job is serving as Director of Network Services at the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. He also runs his own web design and consulting business. In his down time, he enjoys listening to music and riding his bike.

Although during the school year school has to come first, Penny spends as much time as she can outside working on the farm. Whether it’s bush hogging, planting, weeding or feeding – between the plants and animals, something is always needing to be done!

When the weather is bad or it is off season for farming, she spends her free time at the sewing machine or in her favorite chair reading or surfing the net (wireless Internet is cool!)