When I saw a mention in Sunset magazine listing Harvold Berry Farm as a "Don't Miss!", I put it on my summer To Do list. After picking up one of my kids from camp near Carnation, we headed over on a Wednesday afternoon.
The first thing you need to know is that they only take cash, not even checks. There is a Bank of America ATM on the rear side of GiGi's cafe, south of Harvold on 203, if you need cash. The ATM fee was $2.
The second thing you need to know is that the map and address given are wrong. The berry fields are on the west side of 203 south of NE 55th Street. There are signs along the road, but if you go to the address on the map thinking that it wouldn't lead you wrong, you'll have to turn around.
Parking is in a grass field. As described in another review, you get a cardboard tray that fits into a wooden carrying box. On July 3rd, strawberries were still fruiting but not what I would call abundant. We picked about 5 pounds and that took four of us (including three kids 10 and under) a nice amount of time. There is no shade on the strawberry field, so put sunscreen on, and bring a water bottle.
After checking out with the strawberries, we decided to pick raspberries, which were already coming ripe. The raspberries were abundant, with a bumper crop to come. I also would note that we saw very few berries on the vines (both strawberries and raspberries) that had insect damage; read into that whatever you like and wash your berries well.
A quick word about the employees -- they were so very nice and helpful. They gave us directions to the ATM and suggestions for lunch spots in the area. They were able to give rough estimates of how many pounds of each type of berry that the trays would hold and they directed us to good places to pick.
So, nice employees, enough crops, easy picking, excellent price, and lots of fun. Now, the so-so bits that dragged this rating down to a 3... The strawberries were small and covered in dried dirt from the field. Each berry basically had to be hand-scrubbed, which is a LOT of work. Take that into consideration when you go in planning on picking 20 lbs of strawberries! Also, they started to decompose very rapidly. We picked right before having a late lunch and by dinner, the strawberries looked horrible. Many of them had already started to turn brown and mushy. This was not just a select few, where you'd think that maybe you'd just grabbed a few bad berries in the bunch. It was almost every single berry. I had to wash and freeze them immediately just to make sure I'd be able to use them. And, as another reviewer mentioned, the flavor of the strawberries is just okay -- a little more tart than sweet. Now, the raspberries held up better, but I'll say that their flavor just isn't very robust. We're condensing them down to make a raspberry syrup, so it will all end well, but to eat plain, they won't wow you.
So, 5 stars for price, fun, and great staff. 2 stars (which on here is "Meh, I've had better") for product. If we're in the area at the right time of year, we'd probably go back again, but we will know that we need to process the fruit immediately when we get home. read more