Fragrant, ruby red and succulently sweet, these berries are everything they should be, said Betty Sesar.

Compared to their grocery-store counterparts, the strawberries at Wild Bee Honey Farm & Gardens taste like, well, strawberries, said Sesar. The 69-year-old Medford resident recently took advantage of cool weather to cull rows at the Eagle Point U-pick farm.

"It's just fun to pick them, and they taste good," she said, adding that she'll eat most fresh or churn them into homemade ice cream.

The type of strawberry and organic growing conditions make all the difference when it comes to taste, say farmers Mike and Angelika Curtis. The couple tend ever-bearing strawberries for local farmers markets as opposed to the June-bearing varieties typically grown for commercial sale. That means the Curtises have fruit from May through September when other growers' crops have yet to arrive or have come and gone.

"We have lots of steady customers," said Mike Curtis.

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Catering to the local organic market, the Curtises use no chemicals, which affect berry flavor as well as purity, they said.

"The berries are like a sponge, so the residue stays ... no matter what you do," Angelika Curtis said.

Instead, they feed the fields with fish- and kelp-based fertilizers, rotate the strawberry plants on a three-year cycle, put in cover crops of oats, peas and rye and rely on mother nature to deal with the pests. Praying mantises and ladybugs, who raise their young in the berry bushes, are invaluable, Curtis said.

Weed cloth negates the need for herbicides, keeping leafy invaders at bay while warming the soil and making picking easier. The couple's own bees pollinate throughout the plants' multiple blooming cycles.

Organic farming methods, of course, raise the price — to $2.50 per pint or $24 a flat at market. U-pick customers pay $1.50 per pound. But shoppers, increasingly, seek out all-natural products, the Curtises said.

"There's more willingness to pay more, especially now in Medford," Angelika Curtis said.

Yet the berries' smaller size means there's more per pint. U-pickers have to work a little harder for their haul, but often are met with a sweeter reward. Flavor seems to become more concentrated the smaller the berry, the Curtises said.

"A lot of our customers will go through and pick out the small," Angelika Curtis said.

Oregon's cooler climate also is thought to contribute to a sweeter berry compared with those grown in California, Mike Curtis said. Although Oregon, historically, has been the third-largest producer behind its southern neighbor and Florida, the Curtises' was about the only local farm growing strawberries when the couple started five years ago. The labor-intensive process and low prices had contributed to a decline, Curtis said.

In search of a longer crop cycle, the Curtises modeled their two acres of strawberries on what a home garden may contain. The sweet Tributes and slightly larger Seascapes come on in three main waves — from May through the first part of June, a second time in July and a final push in September, which promises the sweetest yield, Mike Curtis said. But the Curtises pick enough early arrivals and stragglers to keep their market customers happy all summer.

Wild Bee Honey Farm & Gardens is at 14356 Highway 62. Call 826-7621 for U-pick information.

Look for stalls at The Rogue Valley Growers & Crafters Market, 8:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Tuesdays at the Ashland Armory corner of East Main and Wightman streets and Thursdays at the Medford Armory on South Pacific Highway just south of Stewart Avenue.

The Curtises also are at The Grants Pass Growers Market, 8:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Saturdays in the community parking lot corner of F and Fourth streets. The Ashland Food Co-op and several local farms carry their berries.

Angelika Curtis suggests the following strawberry pie recipe, which would benefit from a little of her farm's honey.

Reach reporter Sarah Lemon at 776-4487, or e-mail slemon@mailtribune.com.