Owners of pick-your-own berry farm in Champlin, Minnesota announce retirement after 42 years
BRIGHTON CO - SEPTEMBER 10: A strawberry grows at Berry Patch Farm on September 10, 2019 in Brighton, Colorado. (Photo by RJ Sangosti/MediaNews Group/The Denver Post via Getty Images)
CHAMPLIN, Minn. (FOX 9) - The owners of a pick-your-own berry farm in Champlin, Minnesota are hanging up their baskets after 42 years.
In a letter to their customers, the owners of the Bauer Berry Farm, Bill and Nancy Bauer, announced 2019 was their final picking season.
The pair started their farming operation in 1977 with the help of Nancy’s parents and their two sons. The farm allowed customers to pick their own strawberries and blueberries as well as sweet corn.
Now that it is just the two of them, however, the Bauers said they have decided to retire from the “arduous and stressful lifestyle” of operating a pick-your-own berry farm.
“Our bodies are worn out and it is time to move on to the next chapter,” the Bauers told their customers.
In their parting letter, the Bauers said they have been “blessed with lasting relationships with many repeat customers” and what kept them going for so many years was seeing all their eager faces.
“In the end, we have been even been growing berries for the grandchildren of our first pickers,” they said.
The Bauers are encouraging their customers to look for other pick-your-own farms in the area using the website minnesotagrown.com.