Strawberries

OUR STRAWBERRIES

OzBF grows our strawberries on tabletops which means you can pick and we can maintain the plants without a lot of bending over.  We are trialing six varieties this year to determine the best suited and tasting. This includes last year's Albion and Camarosa. We have added Seascape, Earliglow, Ozark Beauty, and Honeyoye and want to keep keen records to know which three varieties to keep for next year. To insure we track this closely we will be providing strawberries  on a We-Pick only basis so be sure to pre-order or watch berry alerts for availability. 

Tabletop Story

Our new growing method is still in trial mode but we have expanded to 3,000 plants.  In the first year, we had a good spring crop and the Albion produced all the way through to the first frost of fall 2021.  In July 2021 we ran into problems with a fruit fly and yellowjackets and halted u pick but continued to experiment with the trial learning along the way.  In the Spring of 2022, we focused on having just a spring crop, thus avoiding the summer critters of July.  This has worked very well overcoming one hurdle.  

The next issue that came up was the ability to winter over with less damage to the fruiting crowns.  In the 2022/23 winter, we decided to try it again hoping for better production. Well, wintering over was a bust. Between some really cold weather and mistakes we made the berries did not fare well for 2023. 

In 2024 using a corral to cover berries we made it through the winter pretty well.  A brief drought period got a few of the plants. Also in 2024, we added some cold-tolerant varieties to see how they fair the weather, taste and produce. 

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OzBf is one of just a couple farms doing out-of-doors tabletop strawberries in MO and has been working with and sharing information with University of Minnesota strawberry researchers.