6$ a qt .here.
Need some for the freezer But not at that price.
What are your local prices ?

I have tried to grow my own the last two years. $6 is a bargain

Quite a few local growers here but the berries aren't quite ready , so no idea on this years prices....I see supermarket berries cheap, no idea where they come from though.

Check for local produce auctions in your area. The quality is usually very good. At the very peak of production, is when prices will be the lowest. At the start and end of season, strawberries are in lower supply and higher priced. Around here, prices are high this year on strawberries.

In Ohio, June 10th is usually peak. Michigan is probably a couple of weeks later.

This is Mt. Hope's report from yesterday.



There's a closer auction to me, that I like better, near Mt. Victory, Ohio, the Scioto Valley Produce Auction. They don't post their results, but I would guess strawberries are currently at least $5.00 a quart there too. I will try to buy around 20 quarts there next week, more if they are cheap.

Keith

$7.50 or $8.00

Wild. When they were in season here a month or so ago the local grocery store had them for $0.99/qt.

Those would be the Florida or California strawberries. They're a little better than they used to be, but still fairly tasteless compared to the real deal.

In our farmers markets you will not see quart prices, it's all pint price or flat or half flat. A full flat is 12 pints and currently is going for about $60 at our markets.

No such thing as a produce auction in Oregon. Never even heard of them until Keith started mentioning them a few years back.

You're probably right about where they came from but they were world's better than the ones you get the rest of the year.

Rest of the year is Mexico.

Every January we get Florida Strawberries for dollar quart and freeze a bunch for the year.

When I was a kid (early 1970's)I got spoiled with our local strawberries which all went to the local cannery/freeze plant. They were dark red all the way through, very sweet, and had a concentrated strawberry flavor when compared to today's store bought varieties. As BP says though, they have gotten better. We used to call those hot house, white in the center strawberries "california strawberries: pretty tasteless.

I still find it really strange there's no produce auctions in Oregon. I know there isn't because I've looked.

Even some of the huge Ohio farmers market grower/sellers, like Wishwell Farms in Bellfountaine, run their extra produce through auctions here. Wishwell does 7 huge farmers markets on just Saturdays and others during the week. They farm over 80 acres for market. Their excess goes through the Scioto Valley Produce auction, I like, at least occasionally.

How do farmers sell their produce, especially excess, in Oregon?

Keith

we have a couple you picks here. Last year $3 a pound. I would expect similar this year.

I gave $20 a gallon here a couple of weeks ago while the berries were in. They were great. Froze 2 gallons in quart bags.

We will be picking around June 10. Not sure what we will be selling PYO and AP. We are down in acreage to around 5 acres. It might be a short season.

PYO=U-pick in Oregon terminology. AP= "Already picked" or in Oregon we just say picked.

Over time it has been tougher for us to grow strawberries because of certain soil fungi that build up over the years. We've grown strawberries since 1954. We've since focused more on blueberries that aren't bothered with those same fungi.

We grow the amount we can sell.

Never heard of these “produce auctions” in MN either. I remember you mentioning them before and looked through the net finding little similar here.

Local U-pick strawberry farm here not “organic” but darn near in reality ( no spraying etc) is at $4.50/lb cash only which adds up when you pick a pile for freezing, jam, etc, but boy are they good I’m comparison to the best you’ll EVER get in store. They’re not a huge operation, but rotate their fields and run about 50K plants/year on 8-10ish acres/year.

Happy trapping! ScottW

My wife said the local berries here are $9.00 a quart. She didn't buy any.









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