Welcome to our 18th Century Bucks County Farm
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Strawberry Season
is Mother's Day to Father's Day
Pre-Picked Strawberries: Market is open daily at 10:00 until sold out
U-Pick Fields: Open daily (weather permitting) from 10:00 am to 2:00 pm
--Remember to bring your Hellerick’s picking box from previous years--
Due to variable weather conditions
Please double check our phone message at the farm
215-766-8388
2010 Strawberry Harvest Festival ¦ Strawberry Short Cakes ¦ Rules of the Strawberry Patch
Sugar Snap Peas ¦ Flowering Sweet Peas ¦ Iris Collection ¦ Help Wanted ¦ What's New?
2012 Strawberry
Harvest Festival is here!
In response to last year’s overwhelming demand for “The Best Strawberries in Bucks County“ we have increased production. PRE-PICKED berries will be available at our Farm Market, beginning on Mother's Day to Father's Day. The Market will be open daily at 10:00 am until we are sold out.
PICK–YOUR–OWN call our farm for picking dates
Remember to bring your Hellerick’s Family Farm PICKING BOXES you used in previous years to save money!
(Please call 215-766-8388 for Up–to–Date Strawberry Harvest Festival information.)
New this year! Hellerick’s Family Strawberry Short Cakes
We are going to let you in on one of our family secrets! After working all day in the strawberry patch we go home for dinner and have Strawberry’s with Short Cake for desert! This is just not any short cake, we have a very special family recipe that has been handed down. Family and friends claim is the best sponge-type short cake they have ever tasted!
We have wanted to share this scrumptious short cake with everyone but we had not found the right bakery to make it for us. We hope you enjoy your family enjoys the delicious flavor of Hellerick's Family fresh strawberries and Hellerick's short cakes.
Rules of the Strawberry Patch:
√ Bring you Hellerick’s Family Farm PICKING BOXES you used in previous years!
√ Pick only berries that are TOTALLY DARK RED
√ Don’t pick any berries with WHITE TIPS
√ Pick BIG and LITTLE berries as long as they are TOTALLY DARK RED
√ Stay in assigned aisles (We try to place you in a spot that has not been picked previously)
√ Pick BOTH sides of your assigned aisle (DO NOT straddle the rows)
√ Don’t jump across the rows
√ Wear your sunscreen
√ Bring your CAMERA
√ Kids must stay with the family!
Sugar Snap Peas: Pick Your Own
Last year we planted a small patch of Sugar Snap Peas. (The peas are ready at the same time as our strawberries!) The response was overwhelmingly positive, so we planted about a half-acre of Sugar Snap Peas to make sure everyone has plenty to pick! Our family likes the Sugar Snap type of pea best because the peas are sweet and delicious at all stages of their growth. When they are ready, peas will be available to pick everyday the farm market is open.
Flowering Sweet Peas:
Pick Your Own
There is nothing like the heady, old-fashioned fragrance of a bunch of Flowering Sweet Peas. But where can you find these rare flowering jewels to pick yourself? Rest easy, this year we planted several long rows of a dwarf-type flowering sweet peas that produce large flowers and long stems in a multitude of colors. When they are ready, Flowering Sweet Peas will be available to pick everyday the farm market is open!
The Buck's County Heritage Iris Collection
We have noticed, as our older generation and neighbors are passing on their properties, that as a result of the renovation process, many of the old-fashioned, die hard iris varieties are being destroyed.
So, for the past several years, our family has been visiting “older” gardening friends and farm families in Bucks County to acquire clumps of these tough old beauties before they are lost. These tough, nameless, old beauties have stood the test of time enduring insects, disease drought and general neglect.
Many friends have contributed their irises to the Collection here on the farm. We would like to acknowledge the Lear Family for contributing over 10 varieties. (These are extra special iris as they were in the garden that the Village of Gardenville was named after!)
We are honored to hold this collection, and it is during the strawberry picking season when you can come to the farm and see the beauty of the irises in bloom. At this time we are not offering plants for sale but we hope to in the future.
Seeking More Old Iris for the Buck’s County Heritage Iris Collection:
If you are a Bucks County resident and have irises that have been at your home or office “for generations” or “as long as you can remember” we’d like to get a clump from you to add to the collection. (If interested, we’d love to have either: at least one big clump or, ten plants.)
We never pay for irises added to the collection and in keeping with an old Pennsylvania Dutch Custom, we can’t say “Thank You”. (If you say Thank you, when you receive a gift plant the custom states, the plant will not grow!) It’s worked for 6 generations and we’re not going to mess with custom.
Help Wanted: Strawberry Pickers
Looking for an opportunity to work outdoors in the sunshine and fresh air and get to snack on strawberries? We are seeking 10 to 15 individuals daily from 8:00 am until around 12 noon.
We have found that Strawberry Picking is an ideal job for stay at home parents (drop the kids off and then come pick) and for college students who want to earn extra money before they start working at their summer job.
Interested?? Call 215-766-8388 and leave your name and phone number.
What’s New?
For the past 30 years the family has grown strawberries using the traditional matted row system. The matted row system is great and has served the farm well but is extremely labor intensive when it comes to hand planting, hand weed control, mulching and crop management. Last year we plowed under our last three acres of matted row strawberries and have converted to a new growing technique called the Raised Bed System.
The Raised Bed System is still extremely labor intensive. Unfortunately, each of the thousands of plants are still planted by hand and instead of mulching the entire field with straw we now cover the entire field with a big white blanket for winter protection. We also needed to install an electric fence around the field so the deer would not eat the plants. On the positive side, weed control and irrigation of the crop are much simplified. Also, because the strawberries are planted on raised soil beds, strawberry picking will be much easier; the fruit will be cleaner and much larger!
Because the plants are growing on raised beds, the soil will warm up earlier which means the plants grow and bloom sooner. With this in mind, we are expecting strawberry harvest to begin in mid-May (This is 3 to 4 weeks earlier than usual) instead of our regular starting date of Memorial Day. We are still learning about this Raised Bed System but we’re sure you will like these new changes especially, not having to bend quite as far to pick the berries!
Please forward our web address, www.hellericksfarm.com
to a friend, neighbor or co-worker who would enjoy knowing about the farm.
215-766-8388
5500 North Easton Road (Route 611)
Plumsteadville (Doylestown), PA 18902
On Route 611, 6 miles North of Route 202
(4 miles North of Doylestown)
