Strawberries

OUR STRAWBERRIES

Strawberries — 2025 Update 🍓 We continue to trial ways to increase strawberry production and have intentionally planted fewer this year while we fine-tune our methods. As such, there will be no U-Pick strawberries this season. However, a limited number of We=Pick berries may be available and will be announced through Berry Alerts and listed in the OzBF Store.

This Year’s Trial Varieties - We’re growing six varieties this season to find the best performers and flavors for our farm:
• Returning favorites: Albion, Camarosa, Earliglow, and Honeyoye
• New trials: no new varieties this year

Our Tabletop Story - OzBF grows strawberries on tabletop systems, which allow both you and us to pick and care for the plants without constant bending. We’re one of just a few farms in Missouri using this outdoor tabletop method and have even shared our experiences with strawberry researchers at the University of Minnesota.

Here’s how the journey has unfolded:

• 2021: Our first year brought a good spring crop. Albion even produced until the first fall frost. Mid-summer pests (fruit flies and yellowjackets) forced us to halt U-Pick but the learning continued.

• 2022: We shifted to focusing solely on a spring crop to avoid summer pest pressures—a successful strategy that solved one major challenge.

• 2022/23 Winter: Unfortunately, harsh cold and a few missteps caused significant damage to the fruiting crowns, resulting in poor 2023 production.

• 2024: Using a corral system to protect the plants, most of the crop overwintered well. Though a brief drought affected some plants, we also added cold-tolerant varieties to test weather resistance, taste, and yield.

• 2025: We narrowed our varieties to the best producers and the overwintering seems to be in control.  We are investigating a new planting sequence and fertilization routine to see if production levels per plant can be improved.