Shhh...the tax guy thinks this is an "irrigation pond:)"

The world outside our windows is frozen in snow and ice.  To get some relief, Dan and I started scrolling through photos of last year.  We absolutely swooned at the photos of our irrigation pond.  We love that place!  Duinincks dug it for  us in the fall of 2012 after we hadn't had rain in 9 weeks, and what a blessing that pond has been! Pontooning, swimming, skating...even sledding down the banks in the winter though I don't have a photo of it.  Oh yeah, we use it for irrigation, too:) 

Here are some photos of the pond in it's infancy.  Thanks Duininck Companies for doing such a great job shaping the dirt!  They shaped the land to direct water flow in such as way as to minimize erosion while maximizing retainment of rainwater and snowmelt.  Water management is essential for us since strawberries are a perennial crop! 

The Perfect Little Gift

Aren't they adorable?  Local, unique, healthy, flavorful, and just the right size to fit in a little gift bag for everyone on your list...teachers, co-workers, friends, extended family members... all those people you want to treat with a perfect little something special. 

$5.00/jar or buy 10 get 2 free

Call (320)967-4718
or e-mail brberries@gmail.com

I am in Renville, Clara City, and Willmar weekly, and if you live within those areas, I will deliver right to your home if you order 4 or more jars.  That's four gifts taken care of just as the holiday season is starting!


Strawberry:  The fabulous taste of  MN strawberries is captured in these preserves made from strawberries fresh from our field.  We use calcium instead of sugar to thicken our preserves, so every bite is bursting with health and flavor.  Mix it with yogurt, top off your ice cream, or slather it on your toast, waffles, muffins or scones.

Strawberry-Cranberry:Tart cranberries add a tangy explosion to these flavorful preserves that will cause your sun-starved salivary glands to kick into high gear.  Set this on your Thanksgiving or Christmas buffet table as a fun alternative  to plain cranberry sauce.  Use after the party on turkey sandwiches, roasted or baked turkey, roasted or grilled vegetables, tossed into a salad, or on toast. 

Grandma’s Sweet Strawberry:  Summer delight is captured in this old-fashioned recipe for strawberry jam just like

Grandma used to make it. Mix it with yogurt, top off your ice cream, or spread it on your toast. 

Strawberry-Jalapeno: Try some ‘heat with the sweet’ on your grilled meat, or tease your taste buds with crackers, cream cheese, and our Strawberry-Jalapeno Preserves!  Spoon it over salmon or chicken and oven bake it. Brush it over fish or meats as a glaze just before pulling it off the grill. Spread it over a block of soft goat cheese as an appetizer.  Slip it into a grilled cheese sandwich and call it a Jamwich. Set it out at a party by a bowl of pretzels. Not overly hot; this combo is formulated for Northerners:)

Strawberry-Rhubarb Tangy on your taste-buds, this delightful combination is only for people who grew up in the North and have developed a taste for the piquancy of rhubarb!  Spread it on toast, top off a waffle, or eat it straight out of the jar for a trip down memory lane.

Strawberry-Chocolate: Creamy and rich, the chocolate enhances the strawberry to a burst of satisfying flavor.  Use as an ice-cream topping, dessert spread, or on anything you eat for breakfast, just so that you can start your day in a healthy way, with chocolate.

Jammin' Time

Are you starting to think about Thanksgiving and Christmas celebrations?  Are you racking your brain for fabulous gifts and party food ideas?  Look no further, Brouwer Berries' jams and preserves will delight your friends and family, and enhance your holiday parties in a uniquely flavorful way!

You can benefit from the fun I had this fall experimenting with new recipes, and filling dozens of jars with pure strawberry jam and interesting strawberry combinations.  I use only Pomona's Universal Pectin, so each jar has a minimum of sugar, allowing the flavors of the fruit to burst forth exquisitely.  The ingredient list on each jar tells the story -- except for Grandma's Sweet Strawberry, every jar has more fruit than sugar.

I'll be at the Clara City Craft Sale on Saturday, November 2, from 9-4, with samples of each kind.    You can get individual jars for $5.00 each, or buy 10, get 2 free, of mix 'n match flavors. 

Strawberry:  The fabulous taste of  MN strawberries is captured in these preserves made from strawberries fresh from our field.  We use calcium instead of sugar to thicken our preserves, so every bite is bursting with health and flavor.  Mix it with yogurt, top off your ice cream, or slather it on your toast, waffles, muffins or scones.

Strawberry-Cranberry:Tart cranberries add a tangy explosion to these flavorful preserves that will cause your sun-starved salivary glands to kick into high gear.  Set this on your Thanksgiving or Christmas buffet table as a fun alternative  to plain cranberry sauce.  Use after the party on turkey sandwiches, roasted or baked turkey, roasted or grilled vegetables, tossed into a salad, or on toast. 

Grandma’s Sweet Strawberry:  Summer delight is captured in this old-fashioned recipe for strawberry jam just like

Grandma used to make it. Mix it with yogurt, top off your ice cream, or spread it on your toast. 

Strawberry-Jalapeno: Try some ‘heat with the sweet’ on your grilled meat, or tease your taste buds with crackers, cream cheese, and our Strawberry-Jalapeno Preserves!  Spoon it over mahi-mahi, swordfish or chicken and oven bake it. Melt it and brush it over fish or meats as a glaze just before pulling it off the grill. Spoon it over a block of soft goat cheese as an appetizer.  Make it into a grilled cheese sandwich and call it a Jamwich. You may not want to spread this jam on your morning toast or drizzle it over a buttered biscuit. Then again, you may:)

Strawberry-Rhubarb Tangy on your taste-buds, this delightful combination is only for people who grew up in the North and have developed a taste for the piquancy of rhubarb!  Spread it on toast, top off a waffle, or eat it straight out of the jar for a trip down memory lane.

Strawberry-Chocolate: Creamy and rich, the chocolate enhances the strawberry to a burst of satisfying flavor.  Use as an ice-cream topping, dessert spread, or on anything you eat for breakfast, just so that you can start your day in a healthy way, with chocolate. 

Strawberry-Peach: Sweet, juicy peaches mingle with the strawberries in this delicious concoction, while a hint of cinnamon kicks up the flavor factor to a fantastic level. Delectable!  This recipe has so little sugar that it could practically be eaten straight out of the jar and called a fruit serving!

Raspberry: Delight your senses with a taste of our fantastic, raspberry spread.  Rich and tangy with a perfect balance of sweetness, it enhances everything from toast to ice cream to poultry to pork. 

The End of a Wonderful Season

One of our irrigation ponds.  Lots of fun for the family!

A few hours of weeding out in the heat today were quite relaxing.  It is so peaceful to hear the gurgle of the drip irrigation on one side, the whirr of the overhead irrigation on the other side, and the laughter of the children as they run through the sprinklers on the way to the irrigation pond for a swim.

What a change from the hectic pace of the strawberry harvest!  As every farmer knows,  harvest time is intense, and fraught with challenges.  Equipment, labor, and weather all have to work in harmony.  Add to that the variability of a U-pick farm, and all of your complex schedules, it is amazing how it all works out.

U-picking mother & daughter in-laws

Thank-you, thank-you, and thank-you, to everyone who came to our farm this year to participate in the harvest in some way.  Some of you picked your own, some of you brought children and grandchildren to learn about the harvest, some of you let us hire your teens as employees, and some of you made it possible for those teens to have a summer job by buying pre-picked berries.

Baby strawberry plants getting ready for the 2014 harvest.

Thank-you so much for checking the website, and arranging your schedules to get here when we were open.  Each year, we plant more strawberries, in the hopes that we will be able to stay open longer so as to be more convenient for you.  Last year we had only one acre, and this year, we had two acres.  We planted enough baby strawberry plants this spring so that next year we should have four acres of strawberries from which to pick. 

If you are on this mailing list, I'll alert you to the start of the strawberry season next summer.  If you have children or grandchildren who really want to come back to the farm for a visit, and can't wait until next summer, send me an e-mail, and we'll try arrange something. 

Enjoying the decorative duck pond by the driveway

U-pickers come in all ages

Teen employees

Strawberry patio

My mom flew in from Ontario to help us out.

My kids on the strawberry wagon

I think it was a tie, and since I'm the blogger, I get the last word:)

Dan and I were just speechless with amazement on Saturday to see all the people who came out after I sent out my e-mail and Facebook plea.  It was awesome.

Thank-you and thank-you and thank-you to all the people who responded.   We run a strawberry farm, and we could pretend that we are in control of our business, but we aren't.  We can control neither supply -- which is weather dependent, nor demand, which is people's schedules dependent.  All we can do is try to make the two meet in the middle. 

At the end of the day, we had 3 unsold flats, and maybe 3 unpicked rows of berries.  Since this has never happened before, Dan thinks he won, but I say it was a tie, because it is better to have a bit left over so that we know that everyone who wanted some, was able to get some, and for once we didn't have to turn people away.  Again, THANK-YOU...and keep coming.  We'll have berries the rest of this week, but after that they may stop producing as it gets too hot, so get them while you can. 

Does Dan Win?

This is it! The season is peaking!  All rows are producing, and we are pulling incredible strawberries out of the field incredibly quickly this morning.  Dan and I have a running contest going to see if he can grow more strawberries than I can sell.  He is feeling pretty smug right now -- thinks he's done it for the first time in 14 years.  I say, 'the day isn't done yet:)'

U-Pick: We need an army of pickers, though!  The wind has blown away the mosquitoes, the sky is overcast so it is not too hot, and it is simply lovely out in the strawberry patch.  Bring a stack of buckets and a camera to show off the fruits of your labor.

Pre-Picked: We also have a lot of extra flats of our incredible variety, Jewel, this morning if you want to pick some up to take them out to the lake.  Call (320)967-4718 or just stop in. 

after the 4th of July

Look at what I picked for the CMCS silent auction!

I hope you all had a fabulous 4th of July holiday.  The strawberries did.  The queen and her court all got down to the serious business of ripening.  All but one of our later season varieties are now ripe and ready for the plucking. Tomorrow there will be fantastic strawberries for you. 

Pre-Picked: We will have a lot of extra strawberry flats tomorrow thanks to all this ripening, so you may call or e-mail to place an order.  We're also taking orders for Saturday and any day next week.

U-Pick Friday: We open at 8 am, I'll post on the website when/if we are sold out for the day.  I don't know yet about Saturday -- things are ripening every time I turn around -- like watching kids grow up -- who can keep track?  I'll post on the website as soon as I know, though, so keep a weather eye on www.brouwerberries.com.

Thanks, Sarah