U-pick farms near Long Beach in winter

Underwood Family Farms - Moorpark

The biggest and most reliable pick-your-own operation within reach of Long Beach, and the rare one that keeps its fields open right through January and February. Winter picking here leans on cool-season crops: the farm's own month-by-month calendar lists broccoli, kale, leeks and lettuce alongside grapefruit, lemons and mandarins, and a tractor-drawn wagon ride out to the rows comes with the gate admission. There is an animal center and a farm market on site too, so it works as a whole family outing rather than a quick fruit run. The catch is the drive: Moorpark sits well up in Ventura County, so this is a day out from Long Beach, not a morning.

Underwood Family Farms - Somis Farm Center

Underwood's smaller Ventura County site, a 12-acre farm center just off the 118 next to Camarillo, and the one worth the drive specifically in winter: tangerines come on in January and run into spring, months before the berry fields wake up. Admission is cheaper here than at the Moorpark farm and buys you into the picking fields, with an animal center tucked among a small grove of citrus trees and a farm market that has been running since 1980. It is a quieter, plainer stop than Moorpark, so families after a full day of farm activities usually choose the bigger site instead.

La Verne Heritage Foundation Orange Grove

A rarity: a working orange grove inside Los Angeles County that opens to the public for picking, on Saturday mornings from the second week of January until the fruit runs out. The Foundation supplies the mesh bags and the picking poles, and the historic Weber House on the property opens for tours the same mornings, so it doubles as a local-history stop. This is the closest true winter u-pick to Long Beach and the cheapest way to fill a bag on this list. It is also the shortest season here, running only as long as the oranges last, so call ahead before making the drive.

Tanaka Farms

The closest working farm to Long Beach on this list, and the one Orange County families default to. Its headline picking is the tractor-tour strawberry season, which normally belongs to spring, but in years when the earliest berries come in Tanaka has opened a short run of January picking dates and a winter u-pick wagon tour, both on paid reservations. Everything here runs as a timed, ticketed tour rather than walk-up picking, so a visit needs booking rather than a spontaneous drive. Winter dates are announced year by year rather than fixed, so treat January as possible, not guaranteed, and check the farm's calendar first.

South Coast Farms U-Pick

A small family farm that grows on the fields at Tree of Life Nursery on Ortega Highway, and one of the very few Southern California u-picks that farm directories list as running year-round rather than for a single season. Picking is walk-up and unfussy, with no reservations needed, and what is out in the rows shifts with the month instead of following one headline crop. It is the least documented option here: the farm posts current hours and prices to social media rather than to a website, so confirm what is open before driving down.

Carlsbad Strawberry Company

Twenty-five acres of strawberries right off the 5 in Carlsbad, farmed by the same family for four generations, and the biggest late-winter opening on this list: the season typically starts in February and the field is then open every day of the week. Admission is tiered depending on whether you want a picking bucket, and the ticket also covers a sunflower maze, a tricycle track and other things to keep small children busy away from the rows. It is the furthest south of these farms, a real haul from Long Beach, and February openings move with the weather, so the first weeks of the season are always a gamble.

Gerry Ranch Berries

A three-generation family blueberry farm in the hills of Santa Rosa Valley outside Camarillo, and one of the earliest blueberry openings in Southern California: the fields open in February, weeks ahead of most berry farms. Picking is deliberately low-key, with containers provided, no reservations and wide, stroller-friendly paths, and the setting is quiet in a way the big farm-attraction operations are not. The catch is unpredictability: opening day depends on winter chill, and the ranch posts each week's hours to Instagram rather than publishing a fixed schedule, so there is no planning far ahead.