A berry busy start to a late strawberry season

Strawberry season got a late start in Wisconsin, but it’s a berry busy one.

At Burres Berry Patch in Barneveld, owner Kathy Bures said the turnout was the highest she has ever seen in 18 years.

“Because it’s so late in the season,” Bures said, “all our customers are ready for berries. They’ve been waiting for berries.”

Bures opened for the year on Wednesday, about two weeks later than usual. This season, she also introduced new procedures.

The patch only offers “pick-your-own” strawberries, which frees up fields for people to spread farther apart. Berries are also charged by volume, not weight, to limit contact between employees and customers.

The turnout has been similar in patches across the area, including Skelly’s Farm Market in Janesville and Carandale Fruit Farm in Oregon, though not everyone anticipated it.

“We were scared to death that we were going to have no business because of COVID,” Craig Carpenter, the president of the Wisconsin Berry Growers Association, said.

However, Carpenter, who also owns Gracie's Berries in Cambridge, soon found that people were itching to get out of the house.

“It’s a lot healthier… less dangerous to be doing things outside than it is inside,” he said.

Conditions change frequently at berry patches, often getting picked out early in the day. Best practices are to call ahead or check their social media sites.