Customers shop in the store off U.S. 441 west of Boynton Beach. The new location
in downtown Delray Beach will have the same square footage but a different aisle configuration.
U-pick strawberries are ripening now.
Photos by Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star
By Deborah S. Hartz-Seeley
We walk along the rows of carefully staked tomato vines, enjoying their earthy, almost lemony scent. We have our eyes peeled for reddish-orange orbs signaling the fruits are vine-ripe, ready for picking — and eating, of course.
In the rows of dark green strawberry plants, we find plenty of white blooms, but it takes careful looking beneath the leaves to find the jewel-like berries. There hasn’t been much sun recently to ripen them. And among the shiny green foliage of the pepper plants, it takes a Sherlock Holmes to discover the pepper globes camouflaged by the leaves.
These are the U-pick fields that are just part of the fun when you visit Bedner’s Farm Fresh Market west of Boynton Beach. Set on 80 acres, the farm supplies fresh beans, corn, broccoli, cabbage, kale, lettuce, spinach, cauliflower and other crops to its farm store.
“You name it and we probably grow it,” says Marie Bedner, operations manager at Bedner Growers Inc.
But the Bedner family — now in its fifth generation on the farm — has set aside seven acres you can harvest yourself. In fact, now is prime picking time for peppers, tomatoes and strawberries. In the spring you’ll find cucumbers and a field of snapdragons and sunflowers. You fill a pail with your pickings and then pay for them by the pound. You’ll soon discover that the most difficult thing about U-pick is taking only what you can use.
Seems like any day you visit you’ll find people from all age groups out among the plants. “The crops are so fresh,” says Alex Vidal of Boca Raton, explaining why he’s brought his two granddaughters, 10 and 2, to roam the fields.
For Tonya Clarkson of Pompano Beach, it’s a great way for her 6-year-old twins, Brett and Casey, to get outdoors and do something when there’s a day off from school. They’ve come with their friends Kristeen Bengala of Pompano Beach and her daughter, Ava, 6, who are impressed to learn that everything here is organic.
Jennifer Fleigelman of Lake Worth is gathering berries to make jam. Her home-schooled sons Jordon, 13, and Jaydon, 15, are helping her pick and are looking forward to having something good to eat.
And then there is the strawberry field full of students who are here on a field trip.
On weekends the farm is particularly kid-friendly. That’s when you can not only pick your own but also enjoy pony rides, a petting zoo, fresh-churned ice cream, corn right from the roaster and an audio-guided tour of the farm on a trailer pulled by a tractor. “Weekends here are madness,” says Bedner.
And if you are lucky, you, like us, will be able to enjoy the wildlife. Because the farm is adjacent to the over 220-square-mile Arthur R. Marshall Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge, you may see egrets, wood storks and even an endangered snail kite. We were lucky enough to share a field with three immature roseate spoonbills swaddled in pink feathers enjoying an outing with their mom.
If you can’t make it to their farm out west, the Bedners are opening a second market location in Delray Beach’s Artists Alley area sometime this month. This 3,000-square-foot store will offer field-fresh produce trucked in daily from the farm. Of course, there won’t be room for a U-pick, but there will be a patio where you can enjoy prepared salads and sandwiches.
“It’s been terrifying to add retailing to our family farming business. But we’ve had success in Boynton and that should make it easier on our second go-round,” Bedner says.
Deborah S. Hartz-Seeley is a certified master gardener. Reach her at debhartz@att.net.
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