Today we’d like to introduce you to Brad And Bess Munsterteiger.
Hi Brad and Bess, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
Our story starts in 1983 when Brad’s parents started raising strawberries in Freeport, MN. Working with them, Brad learned the ins and outs of running a pick your own farm and he developed a love for growing strawberries.
Fast forward 15 years: We bought our land in the Monticello, MN area in 1998 with the dream of starting our own berry farm. In 1999 we planted our first strawberry plants and in 2000 we were open for business.
We added 1100 blueberry bushes a couple of years later, followed by an acre of raspberries after that.
About 10 years ago, Brad thought he’d try his hand at bee keeping and started with 2 hives. He fell in love with it. Two hives became 20 and 20 became 40. Now honey and beeswax products (homemade lip balms and lotion bars) are year-round staples at our farm.
A few years ago, hard neck garlic was pursued, and we now plant between 8,000 to 10,000 cloves each fall.
And for the past 3 years we have also operated a cut your own flowers. Roughly 25 to 40 (mostly summer annuals) started by Brad early each spring.
2026 will be our 27th year of providing (6 acres) of pick your own strawberries, 1100 mature PYO blueberry bushes (from the University of Minnesota blueberry breeding program) 10,000 garlic bulbs, cut flowers, honey and specialty products.
As the saying goes, “Many hands make light work.” None of this would be possible without the many young teenagers (and preteens) whom we employ for tasks that require more than one person: such as pulling weeds, planting, snipping buds, more weed pulling, raking and did we mention pulling weeds. And we absolutely love the schoolteachers that help our customers in the field during picking season. They have the patience of angels.
What makes our operation work, is the knowledge and experience that we have gained over the years working hand in hand with specialty crop experts, other fruit growers and family.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
We truly have been blessed. Overall, our journey has been fairly smooth. Having the backing and knowledge Brad’s parents provided us was invaluable in so many ways. It took us a few years to build our customer base. The first few years, we had way more fruit than folks to pick it. But the last few years demand for local, pick your own fruit had exceeded the amount we were able to produce. We have planted more strawberries to hopefully keep up with demand.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
Brad has been retired from the corporate and government career fields for the past 6 years. Our specialty crops berry farm was started 20 years prior to that. Brads career obviously came first, which meant there were a lot of evenings and weekends that were filled by farm projects. And now that he’s retired (yeah right), he is busier than ever. Bess works full-time in Plymouth and takes time off during picking season to work in the check out. She also makes the lip balms, hand lotion bars, and the beeswax food wraps that we sell.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://strawberrybasket.com/
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: @the.strawberry.basket
- Facebook: Strawberry Basket
- Other: Threads: the.strawberry.basket
