Produce – White Pine Berry Farm

What is Growing at White Pine Berry Farm?

See information below on what we produce and sell.

Items will be marked with an (In Season!) when they are currently available at the farm.

Strawberries

June – Early July

Strawberry picking at White Pine has turned into an annual tradition for many of our friends and customers who love our delicious, certified organic, pesticide free strawberries. At White Pine we have a unique picking experience where customers get to sample different strawberry varieties and pick your favorite. Yes, you read that correctly – there are different “flavors” of strawberries! Each variety has its own unique flavor and characteristics. Wendy is our earliest variety and one of the sweetest! We even planted some in our hoophouse to have local, certified organic berries well before the normal strawberry picking season. Jewel, our most popular strawberry, has a tangy burst of flavor that can only come from a farm fresh strawberry. About half of White Pine’s acres are planted in Jewel. The easiest picking at White Pine comes when Jewels are in season, usually near the end of June. L’Amour is a French variety that is big and sweet. These are ready around the same time as Jewels. Rutgers Scarlet, a dark red colored berry, has an interesting combination of sweet and tangy and is great for jam making, (we will let you guess what university it was developed at…) Our latest maturing strawberry is Malwina! If you like the flavor of Jewel, you will love the flavor of Malwina. This variety blooms when we are picking most of the others. This means the berries will be ready in July, the same time as our Blueberries and Raspberries! Other new strawberry varieties to try this year are Brunswick, Galletta, Sweet Ann, Albion, Yambu. These are brand new verities from University of Minnesota that we have planted limited amounts of.

☑ Certified Organic

☑Pesticide Free

Currants

July

Currants are an old variety of a berry that comes in multiple colors and flavors. Currants are only sold as U-Pick at White Pine Berry Farm. We have red, pink, white and black currants at White Pine. There are many uses for currants such as jams, jellies, eaten fresh (warning ~ the red can be very tart!), dried as a substitute for raisins, baked in a pie, or made into a syrup to jazz up a bowl of ice cream. The black currants grown at White Pine have a very earthy flavor, and can be used in sauces to enhance the flavor of pasta or meat dishes.

Customers from all over the Twin Cities area drive to pick our currants. Some customers have even made meade, a honey based alcohol. We use the currants to make a unique raspberry currant jelly.

Pumpkins

September – October

Every fall, our fields fill up with family and friends coming up to pick the perfect pumpkin. Wagons and wheelbarrows are brought through the patch to be filled with White Pine Pumpkins. Whether you are looking for a really big pumpkin (are largest last year was 93 pounds!), some Jack O Lantern sized pumpkins, or the perfect small porch pumpkin, we have it for you. Our most common color is orange of course, but you can find the occasional white or blue as well. We are hoping to expand our miniature pumpkin acres this year, they are a field trip favorite for our Fall school tours. We will also have a selection of pumpkins to choose from near our farm store. Tag us on Facebook or Instagram with your carved or painted pumpkins!

Asparagus

May – June

Asparagus fresh cut from the field is the sign Spring has arrived, it is our first crop available each year. Insider hint: place an order before Strawberry season because come strawberry season we usually sell out well before noon! Call 715-222-4349 or shoot us a Facebook message to reserve some before we are officially open for the year.

Sweet Corn

July – September

This year we will have a CORNacopia of Sweet Corn varieties and plantings. We stagger our plantings and varieties to have sweet corn for a wide window for Sweet Corn. Make sure to grab a dozen when you come to check out the Sunflowers.

We are trying 2 varieties of sweet corn this year. Ambrosia is a bi-colored early variety. Serendipity has been around for a few years, and is a triple sweet variety that has been extremely popular.

Rhubarb

June

Most of the Rhubarb at White Pine goes to making our Strawberry Rhubarb Jam, it’s our # 1 seller. We are hoping to increase our Rhubarb crop to eventually start making Strawberry Rhubarb pie!

We make a lot of different jams, but strawberry-rhubarb is the number-one seller. Rhubarb is great as a sauce too. Farmer Greg loves the tartness, so he doesn’t tend to use as much sugar as some people might. We love the sauce on top of vanilla ice cream!

Blueberries

July – August

As strawberry season winds down, our blueberry patch begins to ripen. Speckles of blue berries appear on our plants located next to our bee habitat and our deciduous woods in July. We originally planted four varieties Superior, Patriot, Northblue, and St. Cloud in 2013. Patriots and Superiors are tall plants with berries that pack a punch of flavor in a beautiful berry. North blue are a shorter plant that is fun to open up a bush and see how many blueberries are hidden inside. Farmer Greg planted St. Clouds in honor of his mother, Grandma Mary, who was born in St. Cloud, Minnesota. In 2015, more Patriot and a variety called Blueray were planted. If you have a sweet tooth, Bluerays are for you! Every blueberry on White Pine Berry Farm has been raised certified organic and pesticide free.

Raspberries

July – September

U-Pick Raspberries are the reason Farmer Greg started White Pine Berry Farm, he didn’t know of any places to pick raspberries in the area. Whether it’s a bright red juicy raspberry from our summer plants or a darker, deeper red fall raspberry, your taste buds will dance as you eat a White Pine Raspberry. The summer raspberry varieties of Nova and Killarney have that familiar tartness of a farm fresh raspberry. Most years, the 4^th of July marks the beginning of raspberry picking at White Pine. This times out perfectly with our blueberries and Malwina strawberries.

Our fall variety starts to ripen in August. Autumn Britten is Farmer Greg’s favorite. The darker red berry with a sweet after taste reminds him of the berries grown in his parent’s yard, a perfect treat after a long day’s work. Fall raspberries are available all the way until the first frost! (Well into September most years)

Fall Raspberry picking is not complete without getting some of our Golden Raspberry varieties. The sweet taste of Anne is as good as gold! Its unique look is only surpassed by its delicious sweet flavor. Make sure to ask Farmer Andrew or one of our team members for a taste test. We bet you can’t eat just one. 😊 We also have a limited amount of black raspberries, which we use exclusively for making black raspberry jelly!

Squash and Pie Pumpkins

September – October

Whether you like Butternut or Butter Cup, White Pine has the squash for you. We are warning you though, Farmer Andrew sometimes gets the two mixed up (oops!). The Butternut are tan colored, bell shaped squash which is great for cooking. Just cut it in half, take out the seeds, add some butter and seasoning, then pop it in the oven or microwave. Buttercups are small green squash with a turbin shape, try cooking some with a maple syrup glaze. Our two pie pumpkin varities are Galeuex d’Eysines and Long Island Cheese Pumpkins. Don’t let Galeuex’s warty exterior scare you from turning this pumpkin into a pie! The warts are formed by sugar being secreted by the pumpkin.

Edible Pea Pods

June – July

Pea pods are a perennial favorite in a stir-fry, salad, or just raw. Think about picking some when you come for strawberries!

Beans

June – July

Green, Yellow, and Dragon Tongue Beans are a Farmer Greg favorite. He loves them steamed with salt and butter. Pick some while you come for strawberries, raspberries, or blueberries.

One of Farmer Greg’s favorite vegetables. I them steamed with a little salt and butter, or browned in butter, or in soup.

We have Green Beans, Yellow Beans and Dragon Tongue Beans.

Sunflowers

August – September

New this year! We will have an entire field of Sunflowers. Come out and get your perfect selfie. We will have multiple varieties and paths throughout the patch to enjoy the beauty of these wonderful flowers. If you would like to book a time for a photoshoot, have your photographer get ahold of us to reserve the Sunflower patch. Cut your own stem to bring some sunshine home with you.

In the Future:

Apples, Plums & Cherries

Not currently for Sale

Although we have apple, plum, and cherry trees, we do not have any of our own apples, plums or cherries for sale due to deer and vole damage. We receive many questions about apples, we will continue to strive for our own local, organic apples. Starting this fall, we are hoping to partner with local orchards to have apples for sale at White Pine Berry Farm during our fall activities.

White Pine has planted Harrell’s Red, Zestar, Sweet Sixteen, Snowsweet, and Honeycrisp varities. Our Plum varities Black Ice and Toka and Cherry varities are Nanking Bush, Hansen Bush, and Carmine Jewel.