U-Pick Strawberries from July 27 to August 24-2019!

U-Pick Strawberries – Saturdays and Wednesdays
10am until the ripe ones are picked. First Come-First Pick Basis.
Farm Market
Sundays 12 noon – 6pm

Summer months are a time of bounty at the farm! Come for a surprising variety of heirloom tomatoes, spanish onions, beautiful greens, beets, baby potatoes, peas, and seasonal vegetables of all kinds to pick and take home. From arugula to baby potatoes, winter squash, to sun-drenched strawberries & zucchini, peas and beans, there’s plenty of fresh veggie opportunities for you and your family. See all Prairie Garden’s has to offer below! All garden vegetables are Non-GMO produce.

Latest U-pick News

Strawberry Season July 27th – August 24th Now Open!– 2019

Strawberries

Strawberry Season – Mid-July – Early August
(About 3-4 weeks, depending on the weather)

Sundrenched Alberta strawberries fresh from the farm. The berries are so sweet! Off to a slow start – picking season will run late – from July 27 to August 24 this year!

Pick Your Own Strawberries from mid-July to early August at Prairie Gardens
Season is on time this year – we expect ripe strawberries by Mid July which will run to Mid August.
Ripe strawberries are available on a first come first pick basis
We also have other veggies for U-Pick in August (Peas, Swiss Chard, Kale, Herbs) a little later in the season
Pumpkins in September & October
The U-Pick Strawberry Patch charges a $5 per person admission, which includes a wagon ride, and free 4 L pails to pick into plus wrist band for adventures back at the Prairie Gardens homestead site. (the patch is offsite – 1 km north) You pay for what you pick. The U-pick Berry Price is $20 for 4 L and $15 / 1.5 L
Sign up for the Prairie Gardens E-newsletter to be notified when the strawberries are ready for pickin’!

Never Been to a U-Pick Strawberry Patch? It’s Summertime Fun!
Here’s how it works! It takes about three days for a half-ripe berry to turn red. Usually, we have folks out picking on Saturday, which means that ripe berries are ready to pick again by Wednesday (U-pick starts at 10am, on a first come basis), however, if there are yet more ripe berries, we continue picking. If it rains, there are ripe berries ready by the next sunny day. A little hard to plan for, but that’s nature for you!

The “King” Berries are the first and largest of the season. Pick-Your-Own starts for them about the 15th of July. They are the first berry of the berry cluster, and are available for the first week.

“Main-Season” Alberta U-Pick Strawberries in the Edmonton region are ripe for the picking the week of July 22nd. The berries are sweet, juicy and dripping with sun-ripened flavor. Main season picking runs for about a week to 10 days, until the end of July.

The “Fairy” Berries are the sweetest (and the smallest) of the season. They’re usually ready for the beginning of August, but the hot weather changed everything! Celebrate the end of the strawberry season with us at our on-farm Fairy Berry Festival the August long weekend.

Peas, Potatoes &
U-Pick Veggies

We grow lovely garden Peas – snap or shelling; Baby Potatoes: Red Norland, Colomba and Santina Gold, (U-dig) or find at our Farmer Market on Sundays from 12pm – 6pm starting mid-July. Heirloom Tomatoes, Garden Greens and Zucchini Squash are ready at the beginning of July!

Here’s what we’ve got planted in the gardens: Vegetable Season starts in late July – You can U-pick peas or beans or squash, or find our produce fresh picked at our Farmer Market 12-6 on Sundays!

Summer Squash Scallopini, Cousa (Lebanese Zuchini)
Peas – Edible Pod and Shelling
Green, Purple and Yellow Wax Beans
Zuchini, Green, Gold and Striped
Beets, Carrots, and Onions available at our farm market (not u-pick)

Sweet Corn – Please call ahead to order by the 50 cob sack! (Not u-pick)
Kale – Blue Ridge, Russian Red, and Redbor,
Fresh Dill, Parsley, and all kinds of Fresh Herbs (not U-pick available at the farm market on Sundays 12-6
Swiss Chard – Red Rhubarb, Bright Lights
Edible Flowers – Begonia, Pansy, Calendula, Bachelor Button, Viola, Marigold

Sweet Corn

Sweet Corn is ready in Late August until frost!
When in season, call to pre-order a Sack!

Sweet Corn on the Cob is like garden candy! We’re growing it at the homestead farm, and will have ready picked corn ready for our Corn Fest weekend! Our sweet corn is usually ready to harvest around the last week of August. We grow six different varieties, from Extra Early Super-sweets, to Peaches and Cream. We sell it by the cob or by the sack.

Taber may be famous for it’s corn production in Alberta, but fresh sweet corn is absolutely the sweetest when it is fresh picked. The sugars within the kernels convert to starch very quickly (by 50% every 24 hours).

The six different varieties we grow start to ripen by late August and continue until the first killing frost –usually around mid September. Please give us a call at 780.921.2272 to order it by the sack for corn roasts or parties. The long weekend in September we celebrate the harvest with the Prairie Garden’s Corn Fest! We also grow baby corn!

And Corn Mazes! Look up! Way up! It’s the Maze Corn – which grows quickly nearly 15 cm a week to a towering height of over 3 meters tall – and is ready to get lost in by the August long weekend. We grow over 7 acres of maze, with 5 km of trails in it. Each year, Precision Mazes, from Kansas City, Missouri, creates a brand new GPS design for our Great Prairie Corn Maze, full of twists, turns and surprises! Even after the frosts, the maze corn stands tall until the end of October, and becomes part of the fun at the Haunted Pumpkin Festival.

Pumpkins

U-Pick Pumpkin Season runs from
Sept 15 – Nov 2

We grow over 40 varieties of pumpkins in a huge 7 acre field, then hand pick them and bring them indoors into our greenhouse pavilions when the nightime temperatures start to drop below freezing. We’re famous for Blue Pumpkins, Striped Pumpkins, Warty Pumpkins, Pie Pumpkins, and Big Bruisers for Jack-o’Lanterns!

White pumpkins are excellent this season, as the hot summer days are just what the pumpkins needed to mature! We grow Baby Boo (mini) Casperita, Casper, and Cotton Candy white pumpkins. Our favorite is called “One too Many” as you can never have one too many of this one. It’s white with an orange spider web over the top!

Come pick out a pumpkin weekends at our Haunted Pumpkin Fest! On weekdays, come and choose a pumpkin from our indoor pumpkin patches is between 2:30 and 4:30, when we have staff available to assist you! On the weekends, admission is refunded if you stay less than 1/2 hour to purchase your pumpkin.

We grow all of our own pumpkins in the Edmonton, Alberta, countryside.

The prices range from $1.50 for Jack-Be-Littles, to $3 for Pie Pumpkins to $25 for Jack O’Lanterns.

CHOOSING A PUMPKIN, STORAGE AND CARVING TIPS

Pumpkins for Jack-o-Lanterns

Choose a pumpkin early in the season. If they are still green, “cure the rind” to turn them orange by leaving them in a warm, dry place. Do not store them on a concrete floor in the garage, as they may sweat and the bottoms will fall out! By mid October, they should be clean, free of soft spots, and have a deep rich color. A notable exception to the color rule are the white varieties such as Cotton Candy. White varieties should be perfectly white with little or no variation in color and definitely no green. Blue pumpkins, like Jarahdale make great carving and cooking pumpkins, too!

Pumpkins should have a hard rind and feel heavy for their size. The longest lasting pumpkins will have stems that are intact, dry, and have been cut well away from the pumpkin. Different varieties of pumpkins are grown for different purposes. Selecting a variety grown for carving will give the best results.

Be sure to avoid pumpkins that are broken or cracked or have excessive scarring. Properly cured pumpkins are quite tough. Pressing your fingernail to the side of a good pumpkin should leave little or no mark. Those that scar heavily should also be avoided.

Despite being exposed to the weather, it is often better to purchase pumpkins from the farmer or farmer’s market rather than a supermarket. The reason is these pumpkins have generally spent more time on the vine and have fully “cured” or ripened so that they have greater storage potential and are less prone to rot.
Storage – Before you carve:

Once you get your pumpkins home you’ll want to store them for maximum enjoyment and longevity. Storing in a cool, but not freezing, dry place. Temperatures below 5ºC will cause chill damage. Properly selected and stored pumpkins can and often do last from one Halloween to the next!

Storage – After you carve

After you’ve carefully carved your pumpkin into a Jack-o-Lantern there are a number of things you can do to make it last its longest.

First, you need to protect the pumpkin from temperature swings and direct sunlight. Keep your pumpkin on a covered porch with good air flow when on display and in a cool dry spot when not. Freezing and high temperatures should be avoided.

The second thing you can do is to coat all cuts with a solution of lemon juice and water. This helps create and acidic environment that many molds do not like.

Third, You can also coat the cuts with petroleum jelly or even cling wrap to prevent exposure to oxygen. These two can be done together for maximum protection.

Fourth, if your pumpkins are small you can dunk them in commercial pumpkin preservatives. This is the most expensive route but if you spent hours carving your jack it might be worth it as you can display your creation longer. Another method is dunk your pumpkin in a brine solution as if you were making pickles.

Winter Squash

Late July – September

We grow a wide variety of squash including green or gold Zucchini, Vegetable Marrow, Scallopini, Lebanese Zucchini, Vegetable Spagetti, Hubbard, Acorn, and Stripetti squash.

They can be cooked in a number of ways. We love to sautee slices of them with butter, garlic, and herbs. You can also stuff them with a mixture of cooked hamburger, rice, and tomatoes.

Downloadable Winter Squash Guide >

U-Pick Strawberries from July 27 to August 24-2019!

Latest U-pick News

U-Pick Strawberries

Peas, Potatoes & Veggies

Sweet Corn

Winter Squash

U-pick Pumpkin

Strawberries

Peas, Potatoes & U-Pick Veggies

Sweet Corn

Pumpkins

CHOOSING A PUMPKIN, STORAGE AND CARVING TIPS

Winter Squash

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Strawberries

Peas, Potatoes &
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Sweet
Corn

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Squash

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Pumpkin

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