Tips for picking strawberries & Pick Your Own Strawberry locations

One of my favorite things to do with my kids every spring is making homemade strawberry jam. We use an old fashion hand crank & funnel and have the best time sampling the strawberries as they are mashed up. We use strawberries grown right in our backyard & strawberries we pick at a bunch of different orchards & farms in our area. It's always a good time and fun finding the biggest, juiciest berries in the fields. 

Here are some of our favorite tips & tricks to picking great berries & having fun:

• Many farms & orchards give you a bucket to pick berries into - we usually bring cheap beach buckets with handles for each kid & combine into the big container at the end so kids don't have to pick right on top of each other & can spread out a bit
  
• Wear old clothes & shoes, the berries are all still attached to the plants in a dirt field so it could be a tad muddy, or they could fall walking over the rows of plants
• Pull the berries from stem, pulling on just the berry could rip the entire plant out of the ground or rip the berry
• Once home, do not rinse your berries until you're ready to use them - then use cool water to get the dirt & any leaves off
• Store berries in a shallow container in the fridge, 9x13 pans work great if you have a big haul
• Strawberries will not ripen more once picked so stay away from berries that aren't fully ripe
• Don't forget sunscreen & water for everyone in your group
• Go early - the later in the day you are the more likely it is that other pickers have already picked the biggest & best strawberries available for the day
• All of the locations listed here have a farm stand that offers baked goods, fresh produce & more. Stop on by for a cookie, ice cream or sweet treat as a reward for all of your hard work :)
• Have fun!

As the Pick Your Own season continues, please call ahead to ensure the season is still open at each location. I do my best to update this list as each season closes, but sometimes fields will close for a day or two due to rain, or lack of ready berries so call ahead to ensure the berries are ready for you.