First, look up your hardiness zone. I'm guessing zone 6, you should be able to grow lots of things there. Strawberry varieties: they're all going to taste better than the store, so don't stress about it. Perhaps choose an early and a late variety, like Earliglow and AC Valley Sunset. Do you want it for fresh eating or to make jam? You'll need lots more plants to make a year's supply of jam for your family. (100 plants? 200? More than I have room for.) For fresh eating, probably 50 plants/household of 4. It's an estimate, it depends on how much you like strawberries. Raised beds: I have cinder block and wood, and I like the wood because it's easier to build. I got terribly tired of lugging around cinder blocks. I use untreated pine wood, about 1"x8" by however long/wide a bed I need. They'll rot after a while, but I estimate 8-10 yrs. Blueberries: pots are nice, because blueberries need such acid soil or they won't grow and definitely won't bear. I have alkaline soil, and if I want my blueberries to thrive I should put them in pots. However, I also have issues with watering pots. So, they might be better off in the ground at my house. Grapes: whatever kind of trellis, make SURE it's easy to prune. Don't grow it on chain-link fence. I have grapes on an arbor, which will be lovely once it fills in. It might be challenging to prune, and grapes need severe pruning every spring. Get some books (Grape Grower by Lon Rombough is the best), you'll need to learn something about it. Wood posts with taunt wires are standard grape trellises for a good reason. People like seedless grapes a lot, I have Interlaken (green), Somerset seedless (red) and a seeded table grape called Swanson Red. I'm considering a blue like Mars, but I have access to unlimited quantities of Concord for jam, so there isn't a good reason to plant one. So, figure out what exactly you want and make some good plans. Get the infrastructure in place before planting and you'll be glad that you did. If you're a weekend warrior, perhaps just put in strawberries this year. If you're retired and have lots of time, perhaps you can handle building grape trellises too. Here is a link that might be useful: Plant hardiness zones

Birds ate nearly all of my blueberries and grapes last year. I decided to buy some decent bird netting this year and so far, it seems to be the key to defeating the birds. 'Scare' items like owls and flash tape did nothing to deter the them. I'm next to woods so that may make a difference in terms of bird pressure. Rabbits haven't been a problem but I think the coyotes and raptors (owls and hawks) keep them in check. I'm going to try bagging grapes this year as well. Birds eat strawberries as well, so I covered mine this year and that seems to have helps stave off the losses. Since strawberries are on the ground, I have also had other critters like field mice/voles and box turtles (no I'm not kidding). Birds are the worst offenders. Chipmunks are an easy pest to remove. Use rat snap traps with peanut butter...caught them all within days.

I buy strawberries in bulk from a local farm, it's not U-pick nor are their raspberries. Same with blueberries but ours are a little later with the local growers 1-2 hours away. The blue berry people tell us to freeze as is, not to wash, if possible not even repackage but just put the cardboard box directly into the freezer. I take them out as needed, they don't stick, don't become soft with thawing. I almost wish they didn't recommend freezing straight from the fields, washed measured berries on hand would save a little time on a busy day. Blackberries I pick myself, or some of them, DH really picks faster and climbs around better than I do - wild berries. Those I wash, bag and freeze, same day picked no matter what time we get home:) He reminds me he's picked more, I remind him I've still handled every single berry before they go into the freezer, not to mention cooking them into pies, desserts, and in a banner year, jelly.

I have raspberry anne and glencoe. If you are interested in these varieties, please message me.