QuickTake:

Lane County farms are beginning to open their stands and fields as strawberries in the Willamette Valley approach peak season. Plus, Lebanon’s strawberry festival returns for its 117th year.


The best strawberries take you back to the best childhood summers — perpetually outside, running through a sprinkler, barefoot on freshly mowed grass, sprinting to the ice cream truck with quarters in hand — and make you chase after those sweet memories year after year.

In Oregon, these bright red jewels are beginning to ripen as summer nears and farms are opening their patches for picking. Folks like you and me are already planning how to stretch our enjoyment of them into fall and winter — jams, freezing — while restraining ourselves from eating the last of our haul.

Lookout Eugene-Springfield has a running list of where you can pick, buy and celebrate the juiciest strawberries in and around Lane County. 

Regional events

Lebanon Strawberry Festival
June 4-7, Cheadle Lake Park, 37919 Weirich Drive, Lebanon

Lebanon Strawberry Festival is a four-day celebration of all things strawberry. Enjoy a grand parade, carnival rides, live entertainment, an artisan market and strawberry-themed foods, including the world’s largest strawberry shortcake. Buy a day pass for $8 (adults) or snag a four-day pass for $25.

Fordyce Farm Strawberry Breakfast
8:30 a.m. June 6, Fordyce Farm, 7023 Sunnyview Road, Salem

Fordyce Farm is kicking off strawberry season with its annual breakfast buffet. Enjoy savory mains with strawberry scones and shortcake, followed by strawberry picking right on the farm. Tickets are $17.50 for adults or $8.50 for kids ages 4 to 12 and can be purchased online. The event is free for little ones 3 and younger.

Farms: U-pick and produce stands

Harry’s Berries
90876 Coburg Road, Coburg

U-Pick is available and the produce stand is open from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday to Saturday

Johnson Vegetable Farm
89733 Armitage Road, Eugene

The produce stand is open from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday to Saturday, and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday. U-Pick is not available yet. The farm will post on its social media when you can start picking.

Thistledown Farm
91455 River Road, Junction City

The market is open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily. U-Pick is not available yet. The farm will post on its social media when you can start picking.

Groundworks Organics
91360 River Road, Junction City

U-Pick is available and the farmstand is open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily.

Upriver Organics
44382 McKenzie Highway, Leaburg

The farm stand opens June 3.

Want to find more strawberries around the state? The Oregon Farm Bureau has a U-Pick guide that can be filtered by area.

On a bittersweet note: For the first time in 48 years, Bush’s Fern View Farms will no longer sell strawberries. Its strawberry patch closed in 2025, but the Junction City farm will sell peaches, corn and other produce beginning in late July.

Taylor Goebel covers Lane County's food and drink scene. She has nearly a decade of experience in multimedia journalism, having reported across the Mid-Atlantic on dining, food systems, education, healthcare, local elections, labor and business. She was most recently a food reporter in Washington state, where she documented a fourth-generation fishing family, covered a David vs. Goliath conflict between a national coffee chain and a small Turkish cafe, and had many culinary firsts, from ensaymadas and gilgeori (Korean street) toast to morels and black cod.