The Berry Field, Happy Critters Farm

08/14/2026

Our W**d Assassins are still hard at work. The 🍓 picking season is over, but the growing season still has a few more months. And w**ds grow that whole time 😜 so our crew is still out 3 hrs / day doing what they do best.

Raising strawberries without pesticides is labor intensive. Not only for the head farmer, but for all our youth farmers who work all summer long. And some of them will come back in September and October after school to keep up on the w**ding. So while our picking season is over, our growing season is still in full swing. These beautiful plants will be harvested from next summer 🍓🍓🍓

08/14/2026

Why did Farmer Joe feel sore the next day? 🤔
The W**d Assassins had a great employee party this year. And Farmer Joe is young at heart. Read more about our party for the W**d Assassins on our last post.

08/14/2026

The W**d Assassins were celebrated last week at our annual Berry Field Bash. They are the best crew of local teens we could ask for. We have 26 people helping us w**d the fields this summer. And we have had the honor of employing 15 of them for three seasons! We know as they grow up they will move on from our employment (even though we've threatened to berry them in our fields if they leave us), so we went a little extra this year to celebrate and got them an obstacle course bouncy house. We also had ax throwing, corn hole, and good ol' foot racing. They received gift cards and ice cream vouchers from us as party gifts. We served tacos, drinks, and desserts (including homemade strawberry sauce). It was 4 hours of simply enjoying being a kid (Farmer Joe may have needed some ibuprofen when he woke up the next day after the obstacle course races and foot races). As he says, he's just going to keep getting older and our employees will stay forever young; so he's going to beat them while he can. (In case you're wondering, I beat him in the obstacle course - no cheating, and he cheated often when competing against the employees). It was a fantastic evening! And thank you to everyone who left extra at the cashier stand to help support this party 🎉

08/05/2026

Local farmers support local farmers. All over your community, you will see your local farmers supporting other local farmers.

We took a family camping trip and luckily blueberry season was still happening because we always need an abundance of frozen strawberries and frozen blueberries 🫐 we got home last night and the kids, and I went to Sweet Land Farm in Cloquet this morning to add to the blueberries we had harvested in Carlton before our camping trip. The picking was fast and a great experience. Then we stopped by Gordy's for a honeyberry malt made with our neighboring Farm Lola's honey berries.

Blueberry season is still in full swing and there are lots of places around. Post some of your favorite picking spots in the comments 👇

07/30/2026

We are a PROUD sponsor of this local theater program. Our kids have participated for 3 years. This is the teen level of the theater camp. If you're lucky enough to catch any tickets, consider supporting this program and these young performers. This Friday in Cloquet.

07/27/2026

07/22/2026

Don't worry. Farmer Joe found something to keep him busy this evening.

07/22/2026

The 2026 strawberry season has come to an end.

Start date: July 5
End date: July 22
Picking days: 18
Total openings: 35
Morning openings: 18
Evening openings: 17

We did our best to be consistent with product and hours of availability, and hoped that the community and nature would support us. And one of those two definitely did.

Thank you so very much, community. Thank you for coming out in a huge way the first 6 days of our season. So many returning customers and so many NEW customers. The impact each of you has on helping new people learn about us and want to try us out is astounding. We can't thank you enough for telling your friends, sharing the strawberries you picked, and posting photos. Each time you were active with one of our social media posts and created your own posts and mentioned our farm, you helped build the awareness that we exist and that we are worth the drive and the time. Each time you shared your harvest with your coworkers or called someone to tell them they had to come out to The Berry Field, you expanded our consumer base. Thank you.

Thank you to everyone who came out even as the weather shifted and the temp rose on days 7-10 of our season. Our plants went into overdrive with the warm days and nights, and as northern MN folk, the heat was hard to endure and kept most of you home. And we didn't blame you (most of us live here for a reason, right??). But some of you came out anyway. Thank you.

And to all of you that came out when the smoke rolled into the northland on days 11-13 of our season, we appreciate you picking with us. Thank you!

Of course, the smoke left and the heat returned on days 14&15, but you came out anyway. At this point we had switched to field roaming because of the amount of crop that we lost during days 7-14, and our plants continued to ripen double-time due to the continued heat. But because of you, the field roaming days (days 13-18 of our season) helped us round out the season.

Your kind words, your encouragement for keeping the strawberry farm going, your love for PESTICIDE-FREE strawberries, your enthusiasm for the experience and product we provide, your acknowledgment of the work we put into this, and your desire to share your appreciation with us and with our workers.... this is truly what keeps us going.

Our over-ripe fields broke your hearts. The weather conditions and their impact on our season made you want to cry. You shared in our loss. But you kept coming out. You gave us a try for the first time or came out for the 4th time this season. Each and every one of you impacted us. You helped us. Without you, we couldn't do this. Thank you.

When we think of the biggest wins we have from this season, they come down to this:

-most of our W**d Assassins are returning employees (lots have been with us for all 3 seasons). The fact that they want to be with us, w**ding day after day, shows their dedication to us and to our farm. It shows us that they are connected to the success of their work and view themselves as in integral part of what we are doing for the community. And this is truly heartwarming.

-we seemed to have been able to convince most strawberry customers that we have enough strawberries, you don't need to line up before we open. You came during picking hours and kept the roads clear. As a group, you all heard the message, took a leap of faith, and found that we do in fact have the strawberries you seek and won't sell out before you get here!

-the volume of people that came in the first 6 days was incredible (especially since the rest of the season was so difficult). We had all the strawberries you needed (and in fact we even had MORE!). And the impact of you coming out in such a big way early on is really what helped us this year. Thank you thank you thank you.

Continue to follow us for a look into life at The Berry Field. Our work isn't even close to done. It is still full-time work from now until October. The sole focus is on next year's crop of pesticide-free strawberries.

Oh, and we need to plan the end-of-picking-season party for the W**d Assassins - we all know they deserve it!

Joe & Amanda Lambert
The Berry Field
Carlton, MN