Fresno Farm Urges Strawberry Pickers to Harvest Before Rain Arrives

Sunshine's Farm owner Kevin Yang is calling on Fresno residents to visit his pick-your-own strawberry fields at 284 S. Temperance before forecasted rain moves in and damages the ripening crop.

The appeal is practical: strawberry harvest in California peaks at the end of March and into April, and early-season berries command prices more than double what the same fruit fetches by midsummer when supply swells statewide. Spring rain has wiped out more than 80 percent of some California growers' first-crop yields in past seasons, turning weeks of fieldwork into a total revenue loss before a single flat clears the gate.

Yang has spent three decades farming in Fresno, starting with cherry tomatoes before opening Sunshine's Farm LLC in 2014. He has said the business can be unpredictable year to year, and this week's forecast has tightened the window considerably. The farm is open daily from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., and on-site staff provide buckets, baskets and scissors for picking, so visitors need only show up ready to walk the rows.

Customers who have already picked this season say the trip easily earns its detour from the produce aisle. "This is the best place to buy strawberries in the area," said customer Carol Davis. "They're perfect and they're delicious." Shannon Badella brought her daughter specifically to support a local business. "The ones that we've been buying from the store don't compare to what we get from here," Badella said.

Yang said the pull toward the farm is about more than the fruit itself. "The kid they love it, they come in here, they pick the one they want it," he said. "The flavor is gonna be different, got it more sweeter and they got much longer." He has said customers return for both the experience and the taste.

Sunshine's Farm also sells vegetables, jams, smoothies and additional products beyond the pick-your-own strawberries. For a farm that has absorbed three decades of Central Valley weather swings, Yang's message this week is unambiguous: the berries are ripe, the forecast is closing in, and the first-crop window will not hold indefinitely.