Vivian C.
Yelp
We came more for the experience than the berries, or at least I had. It was my mom's first time strawberry picking. She had no idea that strawberries were such a low growing fruit. It was my second time so I let her do most of the work, although I don't think she deemed it as such.
For the two of us, I picked up a pint size strawberry box ($5.50, no tax) in the white tent between the potted plants and the playground. (Tip: enter Ward's Berry Farm, and head right to park.) There were other things under the tent to entice, including those frozen dots treats, but now was not the time to weigh myself down - off to the fields!
How? The lady at the register was kind enough to point the way upon my inquiry - past the hay ride, and there would be a strawberry sign with an arrow to point the way along the dirt road. 10 minute walk to the day's field. (Actually, it took us 4 minutes.)
The hay ride was $4 per person. You pay at the same spot and the line starts up right outside the tent. Tractor pulled, there was actually no hay involved. It looked safe enough for the younglings with benched seats and safety rails, though they may need an assist up the steps to get on and off. The ride unloaded folks at the farther end of the field, which was quite smart in spreading out the berry pickers, and giving them more of a ride for their money.
There was a porta potty right by the strawberry field. A rather good sized one from Pee Palace. I didn't peek inside, but it looked decently roomy.
A staffer greeted us and suggested that we pick a row and try our luck near the center.
Strawberries don't seem to all grow at the same rate. Small white young berries grew right beside red berries of various sizes! We looked for red specimens of course, and tried to find some on the larger side, although the smaller red berries also looked quite lovely.
It took less than 20 min for us to have a heaping pint of bright red berries. Strawberry Picking season started up at Ward's Berry Farm on June 8th this year. With this being the last weekday morn before Father's Day 2022, it was pleasantly sparsely populated, while the berries were still a-plenty.
I wouldn't say the same for their playground. There were a good number of children jumping on the new bouncy pillow ($5 for 30 min, socks recommended), and probably two different events taking place.
A food truck hawking a simple menu of hamburgers, cheese burgers, hot dogs, grilled cheese, french fries (gussied up or not) and frozen treats sat handily by the playground.
We didn't make it to the farm store on this visit, but would have been glad to spend more time here if we had it. I'd also love to have checked out the other fields to see if I could have been tempted to pick up a box of sugar snap peas ($8 a quart), or some of their pick your own flowers ($14 for a 16 oz mason jar). Bigger berry pickers could have opted for a 2 quart box for $20 or a 4 quart for $35, in place of our sufficient pint for $5.50.
I'm surprised it took me so long to make it out here. I've been to the market between Ward's and Route 95, and never knew this place existed so close!
I appreciated that the farm was no dogs allowed given that we were basically picking food off from the ground. Oh, and I asked if their strawberries were organic - they aren't.
We fit 24 berries in our little box, and they were sweet. We realized afterwards that we should have picked some smaller red specimens to fill out the empty air pockets. Oh well, next time!