We visited Red Berry Barn to pick up strawberries as they were one of the few places open with…read moreHoods on Memorial Day. Walking in at 9AM, they had plenty of prepicked pints on a table and also an entire field of strawberries available for U-Pick. Pricing is actually cheaper for the pre-picked pints, but I assume that's because U-Pick means you're eating while picking as well.
Red Berry Barn grows three types of strawberries on their farm. Firstly, probably 30-40 rows of Hoods, then some Shuksans, and finally the ever popular (for farmers, given the day-neutral designation) Albion. It's actually quite easy telling the three apart. The Hoods are overgrown, barely kept organized into rows, with lighter color leaves hiding all of the strawberry red deliciousness hiding underneath. The Shuksans in the center, are the tallest of the plants, with striking dark green foliage. The Albions in the last rows look almost emaciated, with small leaves barely able to support the ample stock of strawberries growing from them.
Red Berry Barn doesn't have any particular system for organized picking unlike some other U-Pick farms. Most the field was flush with berries, so we just wandered around wherever we wanted to pick the strawberries.
We went here specifically to purchase and pick Hoods. The strawberries here aren't like those of other farms. For some reason, the Hoods are much larger, perhaps 3-4x the size of other Hoods, but still with the protruding cap. The outer shell is also quite a bit harder than the typical soft Hood. The taste isn't the same either, being still sweet and plump with good strawberry fragrance, but missing some of the perfumy quality an excellent Hood has from some of the non U-Pick farms. The skin is also much firmer - usually Hoods only last a day or two before going bad due to how delicate their skins are, but on Day 2, these strawberries were still firm. I have no idea if it's the terroir or the growing and fertilizer regimen fed to the strawberries or not.
The Shuksans didn't seem to be ready at the time we visited. I tried a couple that looked ripe on the plants, but they were still mostly hard and tasted like sour water.
The Albions, however, were among the best Albions I've had, at least the most ripe ones which consist of perhaps only 5% of the crop. They're super sweet and almost reach Hood levels of perfumy quality but with a different taste. Most Albions, however, basically taste like cold storage grocery store strawberries. Just to hammer it in more - the best of the everbearing and/or day neutral varieties like Albion can be great, but on average, they are worse than June-bearing varieties! Albion especially I think is built for shelf life thanks to the waxy coat on the exterior and the firm interior.
We ended up buying a half flat of Hoods to save us some time, and picked up a $16 basket that probably fit around 3-4 pints of strawberries.
Red Berry Farm derinitely does in a pinch to get some fresh strawberries. I don't think their Hoods are as good as from other farms, but they're still miles better than any grocery store strawberry.
