Across South Carolina, U-pick strawberry farms are preparing to welcome visitors onto their farms to fill their buckets with sweet, sun-ripe, bright red strawberries.
Strawberries are among the earliest widely available spring crops in our state. Many strawberry farms are already open for U-pick activities, while others plan to open in the next week or two.
As the season unfolds, other farms around the state will offer U-pick blueberries and blackberries. Other U-pick offerings include lavender, sunflowers, muscadine grapes and pumpkins.
U-pick farms are part of the state’s rapidly growing agritourism industry. Agritourism not only educates the public about farming and encourages healthy outdoor fun; it can support farmers by helping them diversify their income. The newly released Census of Agriculture shows that between 2017 and 2022, farm income from agritourism in South Carolina grew from $6.2 million to $14 million.