How We Grow

Growing fruit crops commercially in the Upper Midwest requires long-term dedication and a consistent ability to adapt. Fruit crops are perennial, and since each growing season is different, we have to manage constantly changing growing conditions and plant needs to bring a great crop to our customers.

Our primary focus is prevention. For example, we plant disease resistant varieties and employ crop rotations and soil-building practices to prevent the build-up of disease and pest populations over time. We monitor plant nutrition and fertilize to meet known crop needs.

When necessary, we do use approved crop protection compounds to deal with problems that we can’t control in other ways. Our practices are always guided by Integrated Pest Management (IPM) approaches that minimize our use of such compounds. We actively scout our fields for problems, spray only when we know that we have a problem, and, even then, use the safest compounds and application methods we can.

Our goal in all of our activities is to provide great tasting, nutritious berries and comfortable picking conditions for our customers with the least possible impact on our environment.

Our success is seen not just in the several thousand human visitors we have every year, but also in the presence of wild species such as bald eagles, several kinds of hawks, sandhill cranes, trumpeter swans, bluebirds and other songbirds, geese, turkeys, fox, and deer on the farm.