FOUR VARIETIES – ONE SEASON

This year at Jones Strawberry Farm, we planted four different varieties of strawberries each with its own history, flavor, and personality.

Our 2026–27 crop includes:

🍓 Ruby June
🍓 Belle
🍓 Chandler
🍓 Rocco

So what makes each one different? Here’s a little introduction to what we’ll be growing for you this spring.

🍓 RUBY JUNE Big, Sweet & Flavorful

Ruby June is a relatively modern California variety. It originated from a breeding cross made in the late 2000s and was selected for qualities important to fresh-market strawberries: size, firmness, appearance, and especially flavor.

Ruby June is a short-day strawberry with medium-to-large, conical berries. The fruit has an attractive red color, good firmness, and a sweet strawberry flavor.

It has also been evaluated extensively here in North Carolina. Ruby June has become an interesting alternative to some of the traditional varieties grown in our state because of its combination of berry size, yield, and flavor.

For us, Ruby June makes up a significant portion of this year’s crop.

What to expect:
🍓 Medium-to-large berries
🍓 Sweet, excellent flavor
🍓 Good firmness
🍓 Attractive red fruit
🍓 Early-to-mid-season production

🍓 BELLE One of the New Kids on the Block

Belle, also known as GF Belle and previously tested as 122×08, is the newest variety in our lineup.

Belle came from a breeding cross made in 2017 between Sweet Ann and an experimental strawberry selection. It was developed to produce attractive, flavorful fresh-market berries.

The berries are large, nicely conical, glossy red and most importantly sweet.

Belle also has a relatively open plant canopy, making the berries easier to see and harvest.

NC State included Belle in its 2025–26 North Carolina variety trials, where it produced some impressive sugar readings. In fact, Belle averaged 10.37 Brix in the Clayton trial a measure associated with the amount of dissolved sugars in the fruit.

What to expect:
🍓 Large, attractive berries
🍓 Sweet flavor
🍓 Glossy red color
🍓 Good firmness
🍓 Consistent production through the season

🍓 CHANDLER The Old-School Favorite

If there’s a variety in our field with some history behind it, it’s Chandler.

Chandler was developed by the University of California from a cross made in 1977, first fruited in 1979, and was released in 1983.

Over the following decades, Chandler became one of the best-known strawberry varieties grown in the Southeast including right here in North Carolina.

There’s a reason growers kept planting it:

FLAVOR.

Chandler berries aren’t known for having the longest shelf life. They’re softer and more delicate than many modern shipping varieties.

But what Chandler gives up in durability, it makes up for in that classic, sweet strawberry flavor.

It’s particularly well suited to pick-your-own farms and customers who are going to eat, freeze, preserve, or make something with their berries rather than ship them across the country.

And Chandler has a special place in our farm’s history. It was one of the varieties our father, Orval, grew and built his strawberry business around.

That’s why we decided to bring it back.

What to expect:
🍓 Classic strawberry flavor
🍓 Soft, juicy berries
🍓 Mid-season production
🍓 Excellent for fresh eating, jams and desserts
🍓 A variety with more than 40 years of history

🍓 ROCCO A Strawberry Bred for North Carolina

Rocco is particularly interesting to us because this one was developed right here in North Carolina by NC State University.

Before it had a name, Rocco was known as NCS 10-156. It spent years being evaluated at research locations and farms throughout North Carolina and other Southern states before being released by NC State’s strawberry breeding program.

Rocco was bred specifically with our region in mind.

It’s an early-season strawberry known for having an unusually good flavor. The berries tend to be small-to-medium sized and softer than varieties bred primarily for shipping — which makes Rocco especially well suited for local farms and pick-your-own operations.

NC State’s most recent 2025–26 trials recorded Rocco at 11.20 Brix, the highest sugar measurement among the varieties tested in that particular trial.

That’s something we’re definitely looking forward to tasting!

What to expect:
🍓 Early-season berries
🍓 Excellent, distinctive flavor
🍓 Very sweet fruit
🍓 Small-to-medium berry size
🍓 Developed specifically for our region

🌱 WHY PLANT FOUR VARIETIES?

Every strawberry variety behaves a little differently.

Some ripen earlier. Some produce larger berries. Some are firmer. Some are sweeter. And some have that soft, old-fashioned strawberry flavor that you simply don’t get from fruit bred to spend days traveling on a truck.

By growing Ruby June, Belle, Chandler and Rocco, we’re hoping to give our customers something else too:

A chance to taste the difference.

When strawberry season arrives, don’t just grab a bucket.

Try all four.

Then tell us which one earns the title of your favorite Jones Strawberry Farm strawberry. 🍓🏆

We have a feeling there may be some friendly arguments over this one!