Swanton Berry Farm — Attraction in Boulder Creek

I had been here twice before and thoroughly enjoyed it. The setting was amazing, the building was charming, the employees attentive and the food was great.

With the Covid situation Swanton chose to not allow dine in options and no outside eating either. They have picnic tables but chose not to allow patrons to use them. I suppose they would have to clean the tables after every patron and paying their union employees a living wage just would not be cost effective. I am not being critical, just a comment.

I understand things have changed with Covid so the star of the show should be the strawberries. They are a strawberry farm after all and I was expecting their $7.00 strawberry shortcake dessert to feature the sweetest, freshest strawberries around.

Alas, I was disappointed. Instead of fresh, plump, juicy strawberries, the strawberries had obviously been sitting in the fridge for who knows how long and were closer to once frozen and thawed strawberries than fresh. While I don't think they were actually frozen at one time they certainly weren't like the naked fresh strawberries sitting next to them on the counter.

This is akin to the "You had one job" meme we often see. This is a strawberry farm. You charge $7.00 for a small strawberry dessert. The strawberries should be the best. Perhaps they were expecting more customers on July 3rd and the food was just sitting too long. Whatever the reason, the strawberries had a bad day.

On a positive note the...

A palce lost in time where people are honest. When you buy something there is literally a pile of money sitting om the table and the customer is trusted to complete the transaction all on there own. Need change well count it out yourself and we'll be seeing uou come back soon...really tests peoples character but ive never seen anyone no be honest about the whole thing. For me i like to get a nice fresh stawberry shortcake and sit and people watch. Its so funny when they find thier in charge of makeing the money transaction themselves. Pure shock and disbelief followed by acceptance and approval.anyone who visits the farm will be an instant customer for life as well as the farms biggest advertiser. Deffinitly a place to stop with the family. To the left of parking is a few picnic tables to eat lunch or whatever . a cool grass field for the kids to run around and a store packed with all sorts of sweet fruity delicacies like jams and cakes. Not only strawberry but rhubarb, blackberry, boysen berrys and so on. The shortcakes are not angelfood fluff, its a nice hardy almost cornbread style of cake. Maybe something like a family member makes homemade. Real nice place just a few step from the ocean with the sun beaming all the time and the breeze light and cool with the smell of the Beutiful pacific all around you. Its a look into the past and i hope it it always around. Maube someday ill have children to pass this gem onto and eventually thier...

Such a fun place. I had never gone fruit picking before, and my friends took me along to go strawberry picking here. The entire experience was a lot of fun, and I really liked the feel of this place. First off, the "stand" which is kind of like their store is run completely on the honor system - there is no one manning the cash register, they just trust you to pay for what you take (pies, shirts, etc.) which I thought was an excellent concept, and I feel like people actually do the right thing!

I tried the strawberry betty (kind of like a pie) and it was delicious. I also had their strawberry lemonade which was super fresh and just the right mixture of sweet and tart. Their jams were also incredible. After sampling and eating so many strawberry related items, I was very ready to try my hand at actually picking berries!

The weather was a little iffy (the farm is close to the water, so if it is foggy, it gets a bit nippy), but I still had a lot of fun. It was great getting to just wander around and find strawberries. This is definitely a more "DIY" experience and there isn't a guide or anyone assisting you, so don't come in expecting that. The employees are mostly hands off and let you cultivate your own experience. From my understanding, you can ask for a tour of the farm which would probably lead to a more engaged experience, but I really enjoyed just going on our own.

Overall, I'm glad I visited! It...