Strawberries

Fruit from our farm to your table

3733 220th St E, Faribault MN 55021

Email: straightriverfarm@gmail.com

Please consider liking us on Facebook and Instagram, and/or signing up for email to get updates as we go through the season.

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.

The strawberry patch is closed for the

2024 - our final - season.

We thank each and every one of you who came and picked or bought strawberries over our 20+ years here at Straight River Farm. Farmer Bill loved his work and enjoyed seeing familiar faces, and greeting new ones, every year.

With our very best regards,

Bill & Maggie Hein

Straight River Farm

Picking conditions can change,
please call 507-334-2226
to verify before leaving home!

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.

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.