Berry Picking near Zurich

It’s berry picking time again! I always plan to go, but some years, by the time I remember, the season is already over. So don’t delay. Here are some places near Zurich to go picking and what to expect when you get there.

Fruit Picking Calendar

Here’s a general calendar of the picking season, but this changes each year depending on the weather and other factors. So check the farm websites for current info.

• strawberries from about the first week of June through the first week of July.
• cherries from late June to late July
• raspberries from July through early September
• blueberries from late July to early September

Where to pick fruit

The Selberpflucken website is a great resource, showing a map of farm in Switzerland that allow fruit picking. 

For strawberries, we like the Sunnehof farm in Mettmenstetten (Im Loo, 8932 Mettmenstetten), about a 25 min drive from Zurich center. It’s just a farm, no extras for kids, but they don’t seem to mind. Last time we went, it cost 4.50CHF/kilo, about half of what you pay in the store. They used to let you eat strawberries as you pick them, but I heard that’s no longer allowed. I would ask for clarification when you are there.

For blueberries, we like Jucker Farm east of Zurich (Dorfstrasse 23, 8607 Seegräben) and we think it’s even more fun than strawberries. They charge an entrance fee to pick, CHF 5/adult CHF 3/child, which includes eating berries while in the field. They provide cardboard boxes to collect the berries and charge CHF 11/kilo for the berries you take home.

Jucker Farm has a lot of extras for families – playground, farm animals, hammocks, restaurant, lake for swimming – to make it a full day excursion. But Jucker Farm can get really busy sometimes, so if you just want to get the strawberries, it’s probably better to find a local farm near you. FYI, Jucker Farm no longer has strawberries or cherries for picking (see why here).

Other “Pick Your Own” near Zurich: Bonstetten, Dübendorf, Riedenholzhof Zurich-Seebach (Bio)

If you have other recommendations, please leave a comment.

How to pick berries in Switzerland

Swiss strawberry picking is a bit more structured than I had encountered in the US. So here are some tips for Sunnehof farm in Mettmenstetten:

1. Bring your own baskets. Some farms charge a small fee for the cardboard boxes, so it’s better to bring your own. Plus containers with a handle make it easier for children to carry it around without spilling berries everywhere. Typically they will weigh your container before picking, so they can subtract that from the berry weight.

2. Find your assigned row. Often a farm worker will assign you a row and you are only allowed to pick on that row. At Sunnehof, you start at the white pole (where the last person stopped picking). When you are done, you move the pole to where you stopped picking.

3. Orderly picking. They expect you to help keep the field in good condition, by picking methodically down the row, not jumping around. Of course, kids will pick wherever and that’s not a big problem as long as you stay in your row. They also provide a trash bucket and ask you to also pick the bad ones. You should pick part of the stem with the strawberry, which helps it keep a little longer.

4. Sample the berries. My kids mostly eat rather than work. One year my 2.5yr old spent his time collecting rocks instead of strawberries. Whatever. It’s all fun at the farm. This isn’t a particularly long activity. My kids are usually ready to go after about 30 minutes, while I’m obsessively searching for the perfect strawberry. I’d recommend an overcast day as manual labor is harder than you might remember.

5. Weigh the fruit & pay in cash. Go back to the farm shop and weigh your baskets and pay. It’s always way more than I think. So remember to bring enough cash in case your eyes are bigger than your wallet. I picked over 9 kilos last time. Luckily I was with friend who lent me cash to cover my bill.

6. Eat and be merry. The strawberries start to go bad after about a day. So it’s good to have a plan before you bring home a ridiculous amount of strawberries that you can’t eat quick enough. You can always freeze what you cannot eat in time and use later for smoothies.

Here’s what I did with mine (with links to recipes):

• strawberry milk
• strawberry jam
• strawberry cake
• strawberry frozen yogurt
• strawberry fruit leather
• freezing strawberries for smoothies, cobbler, etc.

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