subscribesubscriber servicescontact usabout ussite mapBuy a Classified
Mon, Nov 09 2009 

Resources

print this story   Print this story
  Post to del.icio.us

Photos


Luke Yoder and Caitlin Gregory enjoy easy pickings at U-Pick Strawberries in rural Waseca. Luke is the grandson of berry patch proprietor Janett Van Veldhuizen; Caitlin is a neighbor’s granddaughter.
John Cross / The Free Press


Published June 20, 2008 09:58 pm - Strawberry-picking in southern Minnesota typically runs from mid to late June. But this year growers expect the season to extend into July.

A berry good strawberry season
Wet, cool conditions are perfect

Brian Ojanpa
The Free Press

WASECA

Even though you must hunker down on the ground to pick strawberries, the fruits of the labor are sweet, this year especially.

The moist, chilly spring ideally played into strawberries’ horticultural needs, and the result is a banner, if slightly tardy, crop.

“Strawberries love wet and cool,” Janett Van Veldhuizen said as she walked along the rows of her U-Pick Strawberries farm five miles south of Waseca off Highway 13.

Strawberry-picking in southern Minnesota typically runs from mid to late June. But this year growers expect the season to extend into July.

“In most years, metro-area strawberry picking is winding down by July 4, but this year that will be the peak picking time,” said Minnesota Department of Agriculture marketing specialist Paul Hugunin.

“But picking conditions can vary from farm to farm and change from day to day, depending on the weather, field conditions and varieties.”

Van Veldhuizen said she picked her first crop June 11, but at another self-serve patch, Kathleen’s Gardens near Arlington, the crop is just rounding into ripeness.

“We’re extremely late this year,” Kathleen Thies said. “But strawberries like the cool weather. It allows them to get bigger and juicier, and this year there’s going to be beautiful berries in July, so we’re just telling people to be patient.”

At Hacker’s Tree Farm, Nursery and Greenhouse near Sleepy Eye, the first berry crop was picked June 13. That’s unusually late, but the tradeoff is a positive, Lynn Hacker said.

“The berries are big this year, but we’re into flavor, so size doesn’t really matter to us,” she said.

At the U-Pick patch, visitors are on their own. They pick, weigh and pay for $1-a-pound berries on the honor system.

A scale and cash box rest upon a plywood tabletop supported by two sawhorses.

The Van Veldhuizens began growing strawberries in 1992 on a two-acre site. Van Veldhuizen researches different varieties, planting new ones each year.

She gets her plants from Canada and says today’s varieties are superior to their forebears in at least one respect.

“The public will think of the ones they had as kids, but they’re not as resistant to the diseases we have these days.”



print this story    email this story   
Click here to load this Caspio Bridge DataPage.
Click here to load this Caspio Bridge DataPage.






autoconx

Premier Guide
Find a business

Walking Fingers
Maps, Menus, Store hours, Coupons, and more...
Premier Guide
Premier Guide

 

Community Newspaper Holdings, Inc.CNHI Classified Advertising NetworkCNHI News Service
Associated Press content © 2009. All rights reserved. AP content may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Our site is powered by Zope and our Internet Yellow Pages site is powered by PremierGuide.
Some parts of our site may require you to download the Flash Player Plugin.
View our Privacy Policy
Advertiser index