Northwoods Adventure: Picking Berries At The Honeyberry Farm

The Honeyberry Farm in Bagley is a You-Pick-Your-Own Berries farm and has been around since 2015. Bernis Ingvaldson, the owner of the Honeyberry Farm, said her interest in opening her own orchard came after seeing an article in a garden catalogue.

“It looked really cool. It was a blue color fruit and it was called honeyberry. And what attracted me to it is that it did not require acidic soil. We live just outside of the blueberry zone here in Northern Minnesota and we cannot grow blueberries without amending the soil,” Ingvaldson said.

At the farm, visitors can pick from over 40 different varieties of honeyberries. There’s many ways to harvest berries, and the most common is picking them by hand.

“Then we have shake and drop where you put it like a something around the plant to catch the berries and then you can shake the berries off of the plant and it will drop into your catch bins, and then we have a machine that also shake the plant,” Honeyberry Farm owner Jim Ingvaldson said.

The Honeyberry Farm has a mail order nursery. Honeyberry USA was started in 2010 and they take orders all year round.

“We only ship out dormant plants in April and May and again in late October when conditions are better for transplanting,” Bernis Ingvaldson said.

The Honeyberry Farm has a variety of berries for people to pick.

“We have honeyberries on this side of the farm and then we expanded a mile down the road we have another 3-4 acres of cherries and saskatoon, some elderberries and more honeyberries,” Bernis Ingvaldson said.

When you’re going out to pick berries, it’s recommended that you bring with you a container, but also to dress appropriately.

“If you have long pants, if you’re in areas if there’s any poison ivy or anything like that, just to be comfortable too, just comfortable you want to be able to bend and stretch and not be restricted; it’s not a fashion show outside, although you can be coordinated,” visitor Mary Feldhahn said.