Fruit from our farm to your table
Straight River Farm © 2023
3733 220th St E, Faribault MN 55021
Telephone: 507-334-2226 Email:info@straightriverfarm.com
Please consider liking us on Facebook and Instagram, and/or signing up for email to get updates as we go through the season.
Our strawberry varieties were chosen for their versatility in freezing, canning & fresh eating, as well as their adaptability to our fields. They are:
Wendy: Our earliest variety. They have excellent fresh flavor and are firm, and bright red in color.
Cavendish: An early mid-season berry, dark red and medium firm with a very traditional strawberry flavor.
Jewel: Our main-season berry with bright red color, firm texture and traditional strawberry flavor.
Tips for picking strawberries at Straight River Farm:
Feel free to call anytime, but please call before leaving home, as picking conditions can change and we can't predict picking more than 1-2 days in advance.
Occasionally, mostly very early in the season, we get picked out. If the weather is cool, the berries will be slow to ripen, if hot they may ripen quickly - all at once. If it's very rainy, it may be too wet to go into the fields. We update on Facebook and our outgoing message as quickly as we can to let you know about any changes in schedule.
We provide containers for picking and transporting your strawberries. Our flat, waxed boxes hold about 10 pounds of strawberries when full. We have lots of boxes so we encourage you not to overfill them and crush the berries at the bottom. The weight of the boxes is not included in your total cost.
Pick fully red, ripe strawberries & leave anything that's only partially ripe for the next picker. Strawberries don't ripen after they're picked - they'll get more red color, but not more flavor - so half-ripe berries won't have the great flavor you expect. Leave the cap and stem on the berries until you're ready to eat or cook, them.
Drinking water, sunscreen, hats, kneeling pads, and (sometimes) insect repellent are all accompaniments that can make picking more enjoyable.
Care & keeping of strawberries:
Don't hull or wash strawberries until you're ready to eat or cook them. Cover them loosely with plastic wrap and refrigerate. They should keep 2-4 days.
To freeze whole berries, hull, rinse, and drain or dry berries. Place in a single layer on a cookie sheet and put in the freezer. When frozen, remove from cookie sheets & put into plastic freezer bags or containers. Store them in the freezer up to 9 months. If your freezer space doesn't allow for the first method, place hulled, rinsed and dried whole berries loosely into containers and freeze.
To freeze cut berries, rinse, hull, and slice as you prefer. Put into plastic freezer containers or bags and store in the freezer up to 9 months.
Strawberries by the numbers:
1-1/4 to 1-1/2 pounds = 2 pints or 1 quart (4 cups)
A 5-lb box is about 4 quarts
1-1/2 quarts (6 cups) are needed for a 9-inch pie.
1 cup sliced berries = 1 10-oz box frozen berries
A traditional batch of jam needs about 6 cups of whole berries.
An excellent source for recipes and canning, freezing, drying directions is www.pickyourown.org.
Picking conditions can change,
please call 507-334-2226
to verify before leaving home!
The strawberry patch is now closed for the 2023 season. Thanks for your business this year; we
look forward to seeing you in June 2024.
Please call before leaving home if you're arriving after 9:00 - to be sure we still have berries.
We'll announce here, on social media and on the
berry line - 507-334-2226 - with any updates.
Prices for the 2024 season have not been determined yet.
We provide picking containers. Supervised children are welcome in our fields; we count on their adults to help them with the picking and staying in the aisles. And we recommend 1 adult for every child under age 5.
When available picked strawberries are $/lb and are sold in
5- or 10-lb flats. 5 lbs is about 4 quarts and 10 lbs about 8 quarts.
We don't take orders for picked berries.