Elliott Farms

Elliott Farms has been a family farm at Lizella, west of Macon, since 1980, and has opened its strawberry rows to the public every spring since 1995. It is at the southern edge of what counts as an Atlanta drive, and it is worth the distance: 4.8 from a hundred and sixty reviewers, and a family that answers every one of them.

What You Can Pick

• Strawberries - April and May, and that is the whole window
• Pineberries - the pale, pineapple-scented strawberry, and rare anywhere in Georgia

Berries are sold by the pound. Pre-picked buckets are available at a dollar more a pound than picking your own.

The farm's own advice, given to a reviewer who found hers sour: pick the dark red berries, because the darker the berry the sweeter it is, and strawberries do not ripen after they are picked.

What Else is Available

The ice cream is the thing people come back for, and it is made with the farm's own strawberries:

• Homemade strawberry ice cream - soft serve, and mentioned in more reviews than the fruit
• Animals to pet and feed - goats, rabbits, donkeys and longhorn steers
• Porch swings, for sitting on while the children visit the animals
• Vegetables in season - corn, onions, red potatoes, yellow squash, okra and tomatoes
• Whole or half beef, sold a few times a year. Ring to join the waiting list

Good to Know

Open Monday to Saturday 9am to 6pm, and Sunday from 10am. There are proper indoor restrooms, his and hers.

Cash, debit and credit cards. No cheques and no EBT.

Two things worth knowing before you plan around them. There is no pumpkin patch, and has not been for nine years, whatever older listings say. And the farm's Facebook page is its only public media source, so that is where the season opens and closes.

Pro tip: go in the first week of the season. Reviewers who went early found the fields full and the berries at their best, and by late May the family is telling people the rain has beaten them.