By Karin Glendenning
Community News Writer
There’s a popular saying that reads “busy people get more done,” and whoever coined it must have had Bev and Bob Fazio in mind. Not only do both Fazios work in local schools —; he as an art teacher at Baylor and she as librarian at St. Jude School —; but they follow numerous creative pursuits at their Soddy-Daisy home.
While Mr. Fazio prefers to be inside working on his sculpture and pottery, Mrs. Fazio is outdoors raising chickens, vegetables, flowers, bees and blueberries.
“I play in my mud, and she plays in her soil,” Mr. Fazio quipped.
Next month, the Fazios will go into high gear because that’s when the blueberries will be ripe. With 100 blueberry bushes, many of them towering masses, there will be lots of fruit to pick.
Beginning July 8, the Fazio’s enterprise, Blueberry Hill Farm, will sell blueberries to the public on Tuesdays through Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Patrons may either pick their own at $1.50 a pint or buy ones already gathered, at $2 a pint. Mrs. Fazio suggests calling first (842-7394) to be sure there are berries available.
In addition to growing blueberries, Mrs. Fazio has a cutting garden where she raises all sorts of flowers such as statice, cockscomb, strawflowers, sunflowers, rudbekia, zinnias and coreopsis. “People can come and cut their own bouquets,” Mr. Fazio said. She also grows lots of different vegetables, including garlic (which they also sell), tomatoes, potatoes, squash, raspberries and blackberries.
“We can’t claim to be organic because we’ve never been certified, but we don’t use anything but organic fertilizer,” Mrs. Fazio said. “We just say we’re pesticide free.”
Mrs. Fazio said that she chose to go the organic route because she feels “it’s better for the environment. It just makes more sense to me, but it is harder work,” she admitted.
In another cultivated area in the side yard, Mrs. Fazio grows an abundant variety of flowers. Here she has planted Asiatic and Oriental lilies, gladiolas, yarrow, dahlias, phlox, eucalyptus, ginger lilies and iris.
When the Fazio’s daughter married, the couple tackled the decorations as well as the food. “Bob did the catering, and I did the flowers,” Mrs. Fazio said. Mr. Fazio even made the pottery serving platters for the food. An accomplished artist, he is currently working on a series of Italian clown sculptures for an upcoming exhibit. He also makes thrown vessels from porcelain, and some of his latest efforts have individually carved pixie-like figures affixed to their tops. “I like to do human figures and integrate them with thrown vessels,” he said.
Near the drive leading to the Fazio’s home is a blue chicken house where Mrs. Fazio raises her hens, gathering up to two dozen eggs from them a day. She said her husband designed the chicken house and her son, Andy, built it. “I just wanted a coop and I got a coupe de ville,” she laughed.
Mr. Fazio said his wife works in the yard most of the time, while he works indoors, doing most of the family cooking. It’s a good partnership they have. She raises the food and he cooks it.
E-mail Karin Glendenning at kglendenning@tfpcommunitynews.com
