U-Pick

Later in the summer and into the fall, come back for a surprising variety of heirloom pumpkins, winter squash and vegetables to pick and take home. From arugula to bok choi, winter squash, to sun-drenched strawberries & tomatoes, there’s plenty of picking opportunities for you and your family.  See all Prairie Garden’s U-Pick has to offer below!  All garden vegetables are Non-GMO produce.

Sundrenched Alberta strawberries fresh from the farm.  The berries are lovely this season, but we will have only 30-40 pails available per picking on Saturdays and Wednesdays for season, as the plants were impacted by last summer’s drought.

• Pick Your Own Strawberries from mid-July to early August at Prairie Gardens 
• Season is EARLY this year, as it usually runs from Mid July – 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 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.

Russet, Yukon Gold and Red Norland potatoes are available by the sack.

Here’s what we’ve got planted in the gardens: (Picking Season starts in late July)

• 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

• Sweet Corn – Please call ahead to order by the 50 cob sack!
• Kale – Blue Ridge, Russian Red, and Redbor,
• Fresh Dill, Parsley, and all kinds of Fresh Herbs
• Swiss Chard – Red Rhubarb, Bright Lights
• Edible Flowers – Begonia, Pansy, Calendula, Bachelor Button, Viola, Marigold

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.

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

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 >