“Fixer to Fabulous” couple Dave and Jenny Marrs are turning their attention from renovation to cultivation as they prepare to open the Marrs Berry Farm for the season.
And this year, they’re changing things up to give more fans a chance to visit the farm, for a great cause.
Long before the couple became HGTV stars, they planted the blueberry farm with the goal of helping orphaned children in Zimbabwe.
This year, the Marrs Berry Farm is celebrating its tenth anniversary, and Dave and Jenny are kicking off the season with a very special dinner that some lucky fans will get to be a part of.
Dave and Jenny hosted a raffle of two tickets to the event, which is this Thursday, May 1 at their Bentonville, Arkansas farm. For a ten-dollar entry fee, fans could try to win two seats at the outdoor picnic tables, sitting under the party lights with Dave and Jenny.
The Berry Farm Raises Money to Help Orphans in Zimbabwe
The Marrs family planted the berry farm to raise money for the charity “Help One Now.”
In an Instagram post April 20, Jenny celebrated the farm’s ten-year anniversary, posting pictures of the day the farm was planted.
In the caption, she writes, “10 years ago today! Our friends and family gathered with us to plant the fields here at the farm. We worked hard and laughed a lot. (Our kids were so little! Time flies!!)”
On the farm’s website, Dave Marrs explains why they picked blueberries as the thing to plant.
“Blueberries are a crop that will yield fruit over a long period of time. If you nurture them and properly care for them, the investment will span decades. Just the way we are investing in the lives of the children in our program.
We aren’t looking to solve long-stemming issues of hunger and poverty with a short-term investment. We are committed to the long-haul with these kids… we want to sow seeds of truth and righteousness and love. The fruit that will result will be long-lasting: eternal. “
Dave & Jenny Marrs Change Things Up to Welcome More Visitors
In recent years, the Berry Farm has been open for just one day for a “Berry Fest.” But Dave and Jenny are changing things up this year.
In an Instagram post, the Marrs say they’re going back to the way they used to do it. This year, they’re opening the farm for the season.
Customers can come pick their own blueberries. The Marrs say their blueberries typically ripen mid-June and picking season will run into early July.
They plan to open the farm two to three days a week during the time the blueberries are ripe, to allow as many fans as possible to come to the farm and fill a bucket with blueberries to help the Marrs’ charity. They’ll announce specific opening dates closer to time, once it becomes clear when the berries will be at their peak.
The Berry Bloom Dinner Will Celebrate the Kickoff of Berry Season
Thursday, May 1, Dave and Jenny Marrs will kickoff berry season with their annual “Berry Bloom Dinner.” The dinner is a fundraiser for the Help One Now charity that the farm supports.
Other than the raffle winners, everyone else at the picnic tables will have paid at least a $5,000 donation to be there.
Jenny posted a menu of the event that includes a balsamic blueberry salad with rustic rosemary bread for starters.
For an entree, guests can choose between crab and lobster ravioli, spaghetti and meatballs or wood-fired pizza.
Dessert is a lemon tart with white chocolate.
Help One Now is a Cause Near and Dear to Dave and Jenny’s Hearts
In mid April, Jenny posted a video of the couple in conversation with John and Orpah Chinyowa, who run Help One Now in Zimbabwe.
In the caption Jenny explains, “Years ago, we sat around Pastor John and Orpah’s dining table in their rural Zimbabwean village and prayed for the orphaned children they cared for. We prayed for a pathway out of the extreme poverty cycle especially for the teenagers who would soon age out and end up back on the streets. Pastor John shared his dream of a vocational training school for these kids. We prayed for God to make a way.
And, now, here in NW Arkansas, we prepare for the upcoming berry season that will continue to fund that school Pastor John dreamed of all those years ago. This June, we will welcome you all to the farm once again to enjoy the fields and the sunshine and to be a part of something bigger: caring well for our global neighbors.”
Last year, John and Orpah came to America and attended the Berry Bloom dinner.
Dave and Jenny Marrs’ Special Connection to Orphans
But Dave and Jenny’s friendship with the Chinyowas is not the only reason they are so passionate about the cause of orphans.
One of the Marrs family’s five children, 13-year-old daughter Sylvie, is adopted from the the Democratic Republic of Congo. The Marrs had to fight for two years to get Sylvie home, finally prevailing because Sylvie was ill and in need of medical care.
In 2014, Jenny posted the story of Sylvie’s adoption, writing “I wasn’t there on the day she entered this world. I wasn’t privy to the miracles that took place that day half a world away. I don’t know what her first days and months and years looked like.
There is so much I just don’t know. Looming, gaping holes from her earliest, most formative years are painful reminders of all I have missed.
Yet, what I DO know is on this day, 8 years ago, I bore witness to a miracle. An honest to goodness God-sized, Red-Sea-parting kind of miracle.
Hope had nearly been lost. Despair had slowly seeped in. We had no way of knowing if our daughter would ever be back in our arms. 602 days of waiting, 602 days of praying and pleading and calling Congressmen and Senators and flying over the sea to beg the US Embassy to help. Emails and letters and phone calls with no traction toward getting her home left us depleted.
Make no mistake – a battle took place to bring our daughter home. The exhale that took place when she was back in my arms on US soil was echoed in heaven. The spiritual battle that I couldn’t see during those long days and nights was finally over.
I post this photo every year on this day to remember. I never want to forget the way the Lord fought on our behalf. “
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Dave & Jenny Marrs Offer Sweet Invitation to Fans