| Welcome to the Straight River Farm website |
| -- Farm to table produce -- Faribault, Minnesota |
| Welcome to Straight River Farm -- Where you can find produce fresh from the farm to your table. We're located a couple of miles southeast of Faribault, Minnesota, an easy drive south of the Twin Cities of St. Paul & Minneapolis, in rural Rice County. Our orchard is approximately 2600 trees on 8 acres; we have Zestar!, Honeycrisp, and SweeTango among our varieties. The apples page has more information. We do not offer pick-your-own apples at this time. Strawberries are available to pick your own or to buy picked from June to early July. Check the strawberry picking page for more information about picking & buying strawberries, and the strawberries page for information about strawberries in general. The summer raspberry patch usually opens about July 1--just as the strawberries are finishing. The raspberries page gives updated picking information as it's available. Two hoop houses are home to tomatoes each year. Being able to start the plants in the ground on April 1st means ripe, home-grown tomatoes in early July. We continue to learn the intricacies of growing in this environment, and love being able to bring you tomatoes a month earlier than average. Melons go in spare pieces of ground each year. Think of the best cantaloupe you ever had and multiply that at least 5 times to get a rough idea how good Farmer Bill's melons are. Spring 2011 saw the planting of a half-acre of blueberries. There were a few (really, just a few, not canning/freezing quantities) blueberries to pick in 2013. There still won't be enough blueberries to open for PYO in 2014 - this year's crop will go to Farmers' Markets with us. |
| Our farm is ecologically managed to reduce the need for pesticides and be sustainable for the environment, the consumer, and the farmer. We use an IPM method incorporating insect traps, pheromone lures, and field scouting to raise food that tastes good and is good for you. |
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| Our tomatoes are coming in, and the first of our sweet corn may be ready this weekend (July 26-27). The melons are setting fruit, but it will still be several weeks before any are ready to harvest. Raspberries and blueberries were both very small crops this year - too small to open for PYO. We're working on expanding and caring for both crops to be able to offer pick-your-own in future years. |
| Upcoming Markets |
| Updated July 21, 2014 |