Tips and Tricks for Picking Your Own Strawberries

Reader Contribution by Lanette Lepper
Published on June 9, 2014

Here in coastal Virginia, strawberry season is wrapping up. Between dehydrating, freezing, eating fresh, and making jam, I picked over a hundred pounds of them this year. I am blessed to have several Pick-Your-Own Farms in the area, so I’ve sworn off grocery store strawberries. As many of you know, once you’ve tasted fresh picked, local berries, it’s difficult to justify paying for the tasteless, colorless grocery offerings. There are, however, several tips to ensure a successful trip to the strawberry fields. For those of you in New England and the Midwest, where strawberries are just coming into season, I offer this advice:

Best Gardening Advice for Picking Strawberries

Talk to the farmer and ask what varieties of berries they have. Then, before you start picking, taste each kind. Just like a ‘Golden Delicious’ apple tastes very different from a ‘Honey Crisp,’ strawberries, too, will have their own texture and sweetness. Most people I’ve spoken to don’t realize this, and they blindly pick whatever berries are ripe. In our area, farmers tend to grow ‘Sweet Charlies,’ ‘Chandlers,’ ‘Camarosas,’ ‘Albions,’ and ‘Festivals.’ Some are firm, some are super sweet, some aren’t as sweet but still taste great … you can decide, based on taste and how you plan to use them, which you like best. And here’s the kicker:The same variety of berry grown on one farm will taste different than those grown on another farm.

I love the ‘Sweet Charlies’ grown at one local farm, but not at another, where they had no taste at all (which is okay, because I love THAT farm’s ‘Camarosas’ best of all!) Don’t assume the busiest farm has the best berries. I was shocked to find that the ‘most popular’ field here was not only more expensive than all the rest, but their berries hardly had any taste whatsoever! If you’re lucky enough to have a choice, visit each farm and taste before you pick at each of them.

Berries ripened in sun will be sweeter, and those picked after a rain will taste washed out and won’t last as long once you get them home. To ensure the best berries, plan your picking based on the weather.

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