Before the Strawberries: Preparing for a New Season

Long before the first strawberry is picked, the work of a new growing season has already begun.

Hidden Harvest Small Farmer Oscar Centeno is preparing his strawberry fields for the months ahead. Rows have been formed and covered, and Oscar is working on the irrigation system that will deliver water directly to the plants once they are in the ground.

For those who joined one of Hidden Harvest's Small Farmers Tours earlier this year, Oscar's fields may look familiar. His farm was one of our stops, where guests had the opportunity to walk among the rows and taste strawberries picked fresh from the plants.

Right now, however, there isn't a strawberry plant in sight.

That's because growing a crop begins well before planting. Preparing the fields and irrigation system is an important part of getting everything ready so that when the strawberry plants arrive, they can go directly into prepared rows with the water they need to begin establishing themselves.

Next month, these empty rows will begin to look very different as Oscar plants his bare-root strawberry plants for the new season. We'll be following along and sharing more about what bare-root strawberries are, why they're kept under carefully controlled temperatures before planting, and how those seemingly simple roots will become the strawberry plants that fill these fields.

And for those who would like to see Oscar's fields for themselves, we're looking forward to returning during our Small Farmers Tours in January and February 2027, when we hope these rows will once again be filled with growing strawberries.

From preparing the soil to planting, growing and harvesting, every crop represents months of work by the local small farmers who help make Hidden Harvest's mission possible.