Wednesday, June 12, 2024

Thank you for a wonderful 2024 season!

 









With the 2024 season in the rear view mirror, we want to take a moment and reflect. It has been our best season yet and we are so thankful to be surrounded by such a supportive community. The combination of SO many loyal customers in addition to our phenomenal staff with the blessing of favorable weather has allowed more than 23 tons of berries to be harvested. And through your support, we were able to donate hundreds of dollars to local organizations that help our community thrive. Thank you for allowing us to do what we love!

Over the next several months, we’ll transition the farm to prepare for the next season. We’ll sprinkle a few farm updates here on social media, but will be generally quiet until we get geared back up. We look forward to seeing you again, April 2025 with a greenhouse full of plants for your flower beds/gardens & plenty of delicious strawberries for you too!

📸 A few of my favorite plants from our greenhouses this year. The white shasta daisy, pink begonia, and yellow marigold were all planted over a year ago at Windsor Elementary by our Girl’s On the Run Team. The sunpatiens and the planter with the dracaena, sunpatiens, and sweet potato vine are here in our yard and are my current favs. ❤️

Sunday, June 9, 2024

Last Call! Monday, June 10th will be the Last Day of the Season!

 


Last Call! Monday, June 10th will be the Last Day of the Season! 9AM - 5PM
Hot Deals on Monday!
Onions 2 for $1
Zucchini & Yellow Squash 3 for $1
U-Pick Strawberries $10/basket
📸 We just harvested ALL our onions. We have three varieties: Yellow (Candy), White (Super Star), & Red (Red Candy Apple). This is one of the 10 wagons that we loaded up. I was looking for an onion braiding tutorial video and stumbled upon this: https://youtube.com/shorts/r-0cciXOllc?si=wo8LXRx0ih10G_7H. Anybody ever braided onions for longer term storage? I'm looking forward to trying this after we let them continue to dry out for about a week or so.
📸 Jake just picked this basket of berries tonight. The berries taste good and look good. But, even after a day of rest, it's definitely more of a hunt to fill your basket, so it will take more time. Heads up, we will not have any pre-picked strawberries available on Monday, only u-pick.
Stock up on fresh produce for the next week or two 😊
14489 Bethel Church Lane, Smithfield, VA 23430. Cash, credit cards, and checks accepted. Thanks for pickin' us!

Saturday, June 8, 2024

OPEN Monday, June 10th, 9AM - 5PM (Closed Sunday)

 


OPEN Monday, June 10th, 9AM - 5PM (Closed Sunday)

Huge thanks to everyone who came out to pick today! The patch has been well picked and we'll be closed on Sunday to allow more to ripen. We'll open again on Monday.

Heads up, it's extremely likely our last day of the season will be sometime in the next week. We'll walk the patch each evening to see how many berries are ripening, and post here on Facebook & Instagram with updates. Thank you SO much for your support of our small family farm! 😊

OPEN Saturday, June 8th, 8AM - 3PM

 




🍓 The Ruby June berries are still going strong! SALES today: U-pick strawberries $13/basket or 2 for $25. Zucchini & Yellow Squash is 2 for $1. Onions are $1 each.

📸 We had some VIPs in the patch yesterday! Shout out to Joyce, Mert, & Elizabeth - thanks for coming all the way out here to visit, you made our day! ❤️

We're getting relatively close to the end of the season. It's tough to say yet exactly when will be our last day. For frame of reference, this is our start & end date for berries in the past several years:
2024: April 2 - ?
2023: March 31 - June 19
2022: April 9 - June 16
2021: April 18 - June 9
2020: April 9 - June 14

Our Chandler and Sweet Charlie varieties are finished producing for the season. Our Ruby Junes (which is at least half of the patch) are still producing well (as you can see from this pic taken yesterday). We'll be monitoring the patch and posting each evening as to the picking conditions and upcoming opening hours. If you're looking to get one or two more rounds of berries before the end of the season, we encourage you to come on out 😁

14489 Bethel Church Lane, Smithfield, VA 23430. Thank you for pickin' us! 😊

Thursday, June 6, 2024

OPEN Friday, June 7th, 9AM - 5PM

 


Embracing technology here at Browder's Fresh Pickins!

Y'all, the Ruby Junes taste like strawberry candy right now. The time of the season coupled with this recent heat has really sweetened them up nicely! Plenty of ripe Ruby Junes to fill up your baskets! U-pick strawberries are $14/basket OR 2 for $25.

Zucchini & yellow squash is on SALE FRIDAY: 3 for $1, while supplies last. Also, grab 10 onions for just $10 - get a mix of all three varieties: White - Superstar, Yellow - Candy, Red - Red Candy Apple.

Come see us soon!
Friday, June 7th, 9AM - 5PM
Saturday, June 8th, 8AM - 3PM

Tuesday, June 4, 2024

OPEN Wednesday, June 5th, 9AM - 5PM

 

Why did the turtle cross the road?

Life is sweet at Browder's Fresh Pickins! 🍓
There's still strawberries ripe for the pickin.' Come get some delicious berries for your weekend charcuterie boards. Also, the yellow squash IS BACK! You can't get any fresher than what you pick yourself. Or, if you want pre-picked zucchini or yellow squash, we'll have it ready for you (same price as u-pick)!

14489 Bethel Church Lane, Smithfield, VA 23430

U-pick strawberry baskets = 1 for $14 OR 2 for $25
Pre-picked strawberry baskets = $20
Yellow Squash & Zucchini = 50 cents each - great for grilled kabobs or squash & onions on the grill
Onions = $1.50 each or 10 for $10
✅ Cash, credit cards, & checks accepted. Thanks for pickin' us!

Monday, June 3, 2024

OPEN Tuesday, June 4th, 9AM - 5PM

 


🍓A Croissant Crab! Such a fun summertime breakfast! This looks like a Pinterest idea I could actually pull off! Thanks Babs for the idea 😊
Source: Kid Friendly Things To Do

OPEN Tuesday, June 4th, 9AM - 5PM
We'll continue the Sales: 2 baskets of U-pick Berries for $25 (or 1 for $14)
U-pick Onions are 10 for $10 (or 1 for $1.50)

We just walked the patch and the Ruby Junes are really doing well this time of year - makes since considering their name ;-). Nearly every one of the 19,000 Ruby Junes have 1-2 ripe 'n' tasty berries on the plant.
Most of the time we encourage you to pick the far ends of the rows, but right now, the front of the rows actually have lots of good ripe ones too!
The Chandler variety is pretty much done for the year; those are the first 16 rows. We bush-hogged the first row to start the annual process of cleaning up and rotating out.

After about a week of slow production, our zucchini has bounced back & is ready to go in your next loaf of zucchini bread! Our yellow squash is starting to come back, but isn't as plentiful as our zucchini. Zucchini & Yellow Squash = 50 cents each.

We plan to be open 9AM - 5PM all week! See ya soon! 😊