Seven Florida U-Pick Farms Where You Fill Your Own Bucket For A Few Dollars A Pound
The first time I pulled off a Florida back road because of a hand-painted sign with an arrow and one word on it, I expected a card table and a cooler. Instead I walked out an hour later with a bucket so heavy it left a red line across my palm, and berries still warm from the sun.
Florida farms let you do the harvesting yourself, and the trade is simple: your time and a little bending over in exchange for fruit that costs a few dollars a pound. Here are seven places across the state where the bucket is yours to fill.
1. Showcase of Citrus, Clermont
Camels. That is not a typo.
Wander the grounds here and you may find yourself sharing a fence line with zebras, ostriches, goats and pigs before you ever reach a single orange tree.
The groves themselves are the main event, and picking your own citrus straight off the branch is the reason to build a morning around it. Fresh squeezed orange juice waits at the country store, along with a gift shop that leans hard into old-fashioned roadside charm.
Beyond the fruit, there is a 45-minute monster truck ride through the property, a playground, a petting zoo and feeding buckets stocked with cabbage, apples, carrots and corn for the animals. The grounds are kept clean and thoughtfully laid out, which is not something you expect from a working grove sitting a short drive from Orlando’s biggest attractions.
Find it at 15051 Frank Jarrell Rd in Clermont. Doors are open daily from 9 AM to 7 PM, an appointment is required, and parking is free in the lot or on the street.
Sunday and Saturday afternoons draw the biggest crowds, so a Monday evening visit buys you room to roam.
2. Bedner’s Farm Fresh Market, Boynton Beach
South Florida does not always get credit as farm country, but drive along 441 in Palm Beach County and the fields open up fast. Bedner’s sits on that stretch with a market building out front and rows of pickable crops behind it.
What sets this one apart is the sheer variety in the field. Strawberries, tomatoes, bell peppers, pumpkins and sunflowers all rotate through the U-pick sections depending on the season, so a single trip can fill a bucket with both fruit and dinner ingredients.
The market carries salads, sandwiches and snacks, and there is a lawn where you can spread out and eat what you just bought. Animals on the property give younger pickers something to do once their attention drifts from the rows.
It sits at 10066 Lee Rd in Boynton Beach, open every day from 9 AM to 6 PM, with restrooms on site and free parking. Sunday afternoons and the Saturday morning-to-afternoon window get packed.
Wednesday evening is the calm slot. Bring cash or card, grab a flat, and cut a few sunflowers on your way out.
3. 5K Farms in Plant City
Plant City grows strawberries the way other towns grow suburbs, and this small farm on Roebuck Road puts the fields directly in your hands rather than in a plastic clamshell.
Sustainability drives how the rows are managed here, and the berries reflect it. Some come off the plant absurdly large, the kind that require two bites and a napkin.
Prices sit low enough that doing the labor yourself makes obvious sense, which is the entire point of a U-pick trip.
The operation runs seasonally, generally opening around March and April, so timing matters more here than at year-round spots. Hours are narrow by design: closed Monday through Thursday, open Friday from noon to 5 PM, then Saturday and Sunday from 9 AM to 5 PM.
Checking their Facebook page before you drive out saves a wasted trip, since field conditions dictate the schedule.
You will find it at 4410 Roebuck Rd in Plant City, in Hillsborough County. Come early on a weekend morning while the rows are still heavy, wear shoes you do not mind staining, and plan to eat a few straight off the plant.
Everyone does.
4. Amber Brooke Farms, Eustis
Forty-five minutes from downtown Orlando, the landscape shifts into rolling Lake County farmland, and this is where the road ends nicely. Amber Brooke rotates through blueberries, strawberries, sweet corn, peaches, sunflowers and zinnias depending on the calendar.
Winter brings strawberry picking. Spring hands the fields over to blueberries and sunflowers.
Fall turns the whole property into a festival with a pumpkin patch, live entertainment, seasonal food and farm attractions, which means the same address delivers a different day out three seasons running.
A tractor ride carries you through the sunflower field, and the cutting rows make for genuinely good photographs. Kids get a bounce pad, a candy cannon, a foam sprayer, a playground, oversized chairs built for family pictures and a small single-rider ride circling the farm.
A little store stocks jams and local goods, and food trucks handle lunch and slushies under a covered pavilion.
The address is 36111 County Rd 44A in Eustis, with free parking. Weekends only: Saturday and Sunday, 10 AM to 6 PM.
Crop availability and festival dates shift, so check what is ripe before loading the car.
5. Blu By U Blueberry Farm in Jacksonville
North Florida blueberry season arrives quietly, and this farm on the western edge of Duval County handles the rush with staggered entry times so the rows never feel crowded.
Both blueberries and strawberries grow here across a large planting, and the blueberry bushes carry several varieties, which is more interesting than it sounds. Flavors shift noticeably from row to row, some tart and snappy, others sweet enough to skip the sugar entirely.
Space is the quiet luxury of the place. With entry spread out across the morning, you can work a bush thoroughly without someone reaching across you for the same branch.
Plan to pay a small per-person gate charge on top of the per-pound rate for what you pick, so factor that in before you fill three buckets.
The farm sits at 5571 Long Branch Rd in Jacksonville. Season timing drives everything, so confirm that harvest has started before you make the drive out past the city limits.
Arrive at the start of your window, work the interior of the bushes where the heaviest fruit hides, and bring a hat. Shade is scarce.
6. Dowless Blueberry Farm, Jacksonville
Six in the morning is an unusual time to shop for fruit. That is exactly when the gates open at this family you-pick farm on Ricker Road, and the reason becomes obvious the moment you step into the rows before the heat sets in.
Blueberries run $5 per pound, and payment is cash or check only, so stop at an ATM on the way. The farm also sells honey, which pairs suspiciously well with a bucket of berries you picked twenty minutes earlier.
Hours are short and specific: Wednesday and Saturday, 6 AM to 10 AM, closed every other day. Four-hour windows twice a week keep the operation small and the fruit moving, and it means showing up at 9:45 is a gamble.
Blueberry season in Florida is tight, so call before driving out. The status listed online does not always reflect whether the bushes are producing, and nobody wants to arrive at dawn for closed gates.
The address is 7010 Ricker Rd in Jacksonville. Come early, bring cash, and take the honey home too.
7. Kent’s Blueberry Farm on Thomas Mill Road
Signage and parking rarely make anyone’s list of reasons to visit a farm, but they are the first thing you notice here. Everything is marked, the lot is sorted out, and you are in the rows within minutes instead of wandering around wondering where to start.
Blueberries run $5 per pound, and the bushes produce heavily enough that filling nine or ten pounds is a realistic morning rather than an ambitious one. The fruit is plump and sweet, and eating while you pick is part of the deal.
The family running the place clearly enjoys the work, and that carries through to how the farm is kept and how newcomers are pointed toward the best-producing sections. It is a smooth, friendly operation without any of the guesswork that sometimes comes with roadside u-pick stops.
Located at 14959 Thomas Mill Rd E in north Jacksonville, the farm operates on blueberry season timing, so confirm before you head over. Bring a container for the drive home, park where directed, and take your time.
Ten pounds of blueberries freeze beautifully and stretch a Florida summer well past June.
