Want to pick your own strawberries? Make a trip to Queensland’s Granite Belt Wine Country to treat your tastebuds to farm fresh strawberries.
Grab the whole family for a day to pick your own and stock up on fresh produce, all while supporting local Granite Belt farmers. Read on to find out how you can.
When is Strawberry Picking Season?
The Granite Belt is Queensland’s largest producer of summer fruits and vegetables. Strawberries come into season from October and continue until May.
“The Granite Belt’s cold nights and warm days are ideal for strawberries and really enhances their sweetness”
Brendon Hoyle, Ashbern Farms
Pick Your Own Strawberries at Ashbern Farms
From October to May, pick-your-own at Ashbern Farms, a commercial organic strawberry farm in Stanthorpe. Their farm is open to the public Friday, Saturdays and Sundays 8am to 3pm (closed Public Holidays).
Pick your own strawberries fresh from the patch or buy them freshly packed from the farm shop. Entry is FREE, just take a tray out into the patch with you and pay by the weight of the strawberries you pick. Hunt for the largest strawberry and you may just be inducted into the Hall of Fame for the Ashbern Super Size Strawberries!
Afterwards, indulge in the treats at their farm store, including homemade strawberry ice cream and coffee.
Ashbern Farms
Pick Your Own at Eastern Colour
The Baronio Family has been growing produce in the Stanthorpe area since the 1930s. True to their Italian heritage they love to share food and welcome visitors to their farm, Eastern Colour, in Applethorpe (just 5 minutes north east of Stanthorpe) for strawberry and apple picking events throughout the season.
What’s different here is that they use a substrate production method, meaning the strawberries are raised off the ground on benches, making for light work on your knees and back for the day.
Eastern Colour grow about two million strawberry plants a season, making them the biggest strawberry producer in the region, so there’s plenty of strawberries to pick and pay by the tray to take home with you – sweet!
See when their next picking event is on and make sure to RSVP. Entry is FREE!
A Berry Yummy Festival!
Stanthorpe is the home of the Queensland summer strawberry, plus blueberries and raspberries too. Make a date with the Stanthorpe Berry Festival come November to taste and indulge in all things berry in a ‘jam-packed’ program.
Meet the farmers, learn about cooking with berries in the Jamworks marquee, Sip Sessions with local wine and beer makers and try an iconic strawberry ice cream. That’s just a taster of this ‘strawsome’ boutique festival! Learn more.
Strawberries Straight from the Patch are Sweeter
Pictured: Brendon and Ashleigh Hoyle (right) of Ashbern Farms
According to Brendon Hoyle, what surprises most on a visit to their strawberry farm is the taste.
“Strawberries taste so much better at room temperature and even better when they have been in the sun. They taste very different when they are straight off the farm and we often we see families where kids have said they don’t like strawberries, but are converted when they have tried the fresh ones.”
Brendan Hoyle, Ashbern Farms