U-pick strawberry season in full swing

MARENGO — If you call ahead to Genoa Bluffs farm, just off Interstate 80 south of Marengo, Ken Schaefer will bake you a pie. A strawberry pie, made with juicy, fresh strawberries that grow just feet away from the farm's catering kitchen.

He used to farm hogs and commodity crops here. Now, his daughter, Angie Iburg, 39, grows strawberries, pumpkins and a corn maze on 10 acres with her husband, Jason Iburg, 41, and their two children, Lexi, 10, and Trenton, 11.

They started with the pumpkin farm in 2011 and began adding strawberries in 2014. Last year, the first time the strawberries could be picked, they didn't advertise but still sold out of berries in three weeks. This year, customers can pick their own berries on an acre of land — another half acre will be ready next year.

Three beehives, rented from Hilltop Honey Farm in Marengo, help with pollination. In the fall, they'll sell the honey — strawberry blossom honey tastes different from the pumpkin flower honey, Angie said.

Strawberry season goes quickly — the berries are ready to pick now and will likely last through the end of June, though that depends on weather. The farm's u-pick hours are 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday to Saturday and 1 to 5 p.m. Sunday. Call ahead — they might be closed later in the afternoon if the day's strawberries are picked early.

U-Pick Strawberry Farms

Map by John McGlothlen / The Gazette

Angie and Jason work full-time jobs in addition to the farm, she as a dental assistant at O'Connor Riddle Dentistry in Iowa City, he as an assembler at Kinze Manufacturing. The two grew up on farms — Angie on this one, Jason near Amana. They want to pass on their love of the land to their children.

'We've had people come out here and not even know what a tractor and a combine are,' Jason said. 'We're teaching our kids work ethic and to be social with the people that come to the farm.'

They hope to someday be able to farm full time. In the meantime, keeping everything going is a family affair. Angie's mother, Jolene Schaefer, helps manage the u-pick business while they're working, and the children help as well.

'It's fun getting to work with my parents and seeing different changes that we make through the seasons,' Lexi said in between darting through the strawberries to pick selections of her favorite variety, Annapolis, to snack on.

Each strawberry variety — they grow six, with names such as Jewel and Honeoye — has a distinctly unique flavor and shape. These are not uniform store-bought strawberries, which often are picked early, before they have fully ripened, in order to preserve shelf-life. Once the berries are picked, they will continue to redden but won't create any more sugars, meaning they won't be as sweet.

The Iburgs recommend waiting to pick until the berry is very red, all the way to the stem.

'If you cut one of ours open, they'll be blood red and dripping with juice. You can cut them with a butter knife,' Jason said.

If you go

• Genoa Bluffs Pumpkin Farm, 2168 HH Ave., Marengo, (319) 668-8447, genoabluffspumpkinfarm.com

Other Eastern Iowa u-pick strawberry farms:

• Annie's Acres Strawberries, 30327 Mill Creek Rd., Bellevue, (563) 872-5652, facebook.com/AnniesAcresStrawberries

• Bagge Strawberries, 2029 170th St., Independence, (319) 334-3983, baggestrawberries.com

• Heartland Farms, 5111 Osage Rd., Waterloo, (319) 232-3779, heartlandfarmswaterloo.com

• Oakland Mills Berry Farm, 1738 265th St., Mount Pleasant, (319) 986-6071, http://bit.ly/27QRx51

• Pride of the Wapsi, 14600 305th St., Long Grove, (563) 285-8180, prideofthewapsi.com

Know of one we missed? Email alison.gowans@thegazette.com or call (319) 398-8434.