Strawberry farms in Michigan in the northern United States offering u-pick services to buyers are witnessing a glut 2025 season.
From the middle part of the state such as Fenton to the southeastern Monroe County, early picking is in full swing.
The late-May-to-early-July statewide season will help land the annual average of 50 billion pounds of fresh berries in MI.
This harvest strategically comes a few months after a February 2025 hailstorm cut supplies in the federal production heartland of California.
Mid & South-east Michigan
It all starts in middle MI, where customer Kara Kinser told WXYZ news that she has “been doing this since I was five.”
Kinser was reaping u-pick berries on Fenton-based Spicer Orchards fields in readiness to make strawberry pies, shortcakes and other summer bites.
Spicer Orchards is a 300-acre family farm that dedicates some 10 acres to strawberry patches, whose picking duration lasts about 3 weeks.
By late June, temperatures in Michigan usually notch up to 80ºF (26.6ºC), ripening the remaining berries and speeding up the harvest.
So far, u-pickers like Kinser are bagging their berries at $3.95 a pound or $40 per flat. This affordable farm-gate rate reflects the current production largesse.
Other farms that average a fortnight of picking apiece cut across southeast Michigan, especially in Monroe County on the shores of Lake Erie.
Some warmer parts of Monroe County started their harvest late May while others await their June berries to ripen before July.
One currently going harvest is on Stotz Berry Farm, which Monroe News cites grows Jewel strawberries that customers can handpick or buy pre-picked.
According to the management, the farm has since the start of picking on June 11 managed to sell 4,000 quarts (3,760 kg).
Lake Michigan Area
And in Manistee County in northwest Michigan, stark on Lake Michigan, picking is getting on well.
The county leads in strawberry acreage in the state with 83 acres as of 2022, while Monroe above, is 10th with 24 acres.
Farms around Lake Michigan that are offering u-pick services range from Scherrer in St. Joseph to Bixby Farms in Berrien Springs.
Therefore, warming weather is accelerating an already successful early u-pick strawberry harvest in MI. But how does the state compare with others in its total production? Below statistics attempt an answer to the question.
Michigan Strawberry and U-Pick Farms Statistics
The northern state of Michigan is among the ten biggest strawberry states in the U.S. It ranked 7th in 2022 in terms of acreage with an orchard area extending 875 acres. Production, which is equal to 0.5% of the federal output, ranks in the eighth position, as of 2022. Comparatively, Michigan’s strawberry harvest in 2022 clocked 50 million pounds, against leader California’s 1.5 billion pounds.
Which counties top strawberry acreage in Michigan?
According to MLive, Manistee County in the northwest parts of the state led acreage at 83 acres in 2022. Below table gives a sample of some of the leading counties by the grove area.
| Michigan County | Strawberry Acreage [2022] |
| Manistee | 83 acres |
| Macomb | 54 acres |
| Houghton | 51 acres |
| Ottawa | 43 acres |
| Berrien | 39 acres |
| Antrim | 34 acres |
| Delta | 32 acres |
| Kent | 27 acres |
| Monroe | 24 acres |
How valuable is the strawberry industry in Michigan?
With pick-yourself services offering around $3.75 per pound to u-pick customers (June 2025), Michigan enjoys a valuable strawberry sector. This competitive selling price helps Michigan earn some $25 million in returns, as of 2022.
Are there many u-pick strawberry farms in MI?
There were about 79 u-pick farms in MI by June 2025, according to unofficial data by PickYourOwn.Farm. The farms cover the over 875 acres in the state.