Kruger’s Farm Stand- St Johns

Not a place to buy a Christmas tree if you are single and need helping getting it on your car. They will give you twine but there his no one that will help you.

I’ve walked past this stand many times, and noticed that much of the fruit just gets left out all day and all night, that should have been a clue to me, but I still insisted on going to check out their selection. Super letdown. I have literally never seen so many fruit flies in my entire life, not kidding. There must have been hundreds everywhere, and a lot of the fruit was spoiled and overripe, hence the amount of fruit flies. Yet I still thought there might be something I could find, and when I went to check out, the cashier (blonde women in her 30’s) was rude and acted annoyed that we interrupted her conversation with a regular customer to pay for our items. Seriously, she was annoyed that she had to stop talking about herself to do her job. So now we take our fruit home, and think well that wasn’t the best experience there, but we’re still thinking we might try it one more time, until 2 days later we realized we must have brought back dozens upon dozens of fruit flies with us from the hundreds that were at the stand. I literally could not get rid of the fruit flies until I thew out the fruit I purchased from there, and even still I cannot get rid of them! Needless to say I am thoroughly grossed out and turned off by this fruit stand, and would rather pay 3x as much for fruit that doesn’t come with fruit flies.

Don Kruger tries to give the impression that the fruits and vegetables are fresh. However, there’s a weekly delivery from Pacific fruit Company that unloads its produce that needs to be used within 24 hours so no thanks Don. My experience with one employee was unfavorable but won’t go into details.

This place is really hit-​or-​miss. Sometimes you can find great deals on great produce like perfectly ripe avocados for $ 1 or organic heirloom tomatoes for $ 4 a lb. A lot of the produce (particularly the fruit) is a lot riper than you would see at a grocery store, sometimes even rotten. The staff is also hit-​or-​miss. It is the type of stand where you go to check it out and pick out a few things that look good but not somewhere you would go to find specific things.

I was very close to giving them two stars.
This place is very hit or miss on quality. Today was a big miss. If the produce I had wanted to buy was in my house, I would’ve thrown it away.
If your total is under $ 5.00, they do not want your money if you’re paying with a card. I ONLY pay with cards, so I’ve had to walk away from the register a couple times. I tend to buy just what I need at that moment.
Prices are good and if the produce is good on a particular day, you’re in luck. If you’re buying less than $ 5 worth, Safeway is a better alternative and they good organics these days.
Lots of room for improvement here. The neighborhood is changing and if they don’t take it up a notch, they won’t last much longer.

I love Kruger’s, ever since I lived in Buckman and was able to walk to the location on Hawthorne. I love their selection of produce and the variety and the folks are just helpful.
It was my first time at this location and the woman admitted that they don’t have as large of a selection as the Hawthorne location but I still managed to do pretty well. Portobellos, zucchini, mixed grape tomatoes, red pepper, a Vidallia onion and garlic that would all end up on the grill. I was looking for a few other items that they ran out of like squash and they didn’t have the variety of mushrooms that the other spot has but everything went over great.
Being that I have friends up in Arbor Lodge now, I’m pretty sure I’ll be back here.
Enjoy.

I can’t grow my own (yet) so this is where I go. This is where I had my very first Portland apple. It now happens to be my neighborhood produce stand– I feel so fortunate! It seems like parking may be a hassle, but truly it’s not. They have so much– and even a clearance section! I
have made some pretty rad veggie AND potato soup, thanks to Kruger’s. Their potatoes taste great raw, though I don’t recommend you finish a whole one. I also love their jams and my kids love the wide variety of honey sticks. The folks who work here are incredibly friendly and knowledgeable. If you need fresh garden herb, this is where you go.
*I can usually fill my bag for around $ 25. Well worth the price buying local!

I wish this were a true farm stand but it’s not. I’ve seen a Rinella produce truck roll up a few times which essentially means what you get at Fred Meyer, is what you get here. I wanted to patronize Kruger’s and would gladly pay higher prices but it’s not even on the quality of New Seasons as far as organic or locally (within 100 miles) sourced.

This is absolutely what my household needs — really reasonably priced fruits and vegetables without having to wait in line or pay too much at Fred Meyer’s or New Seasons. I know some people are bummed out that there aren’t more organics but price, not organics is the number one priority for us: cheaper, more accessible produce means we eat more of it. I am so grateful that Kruger’s is here and shop there at least twice a week. I happened to walk by the one on Hawthorne the other day and that looked amazing. The Lombard site seems to keep getting better, and maybe at some point we can support something as robust as the Hawthorne site. In the meantime, so glad to have it! I also love the baskets and flowers. :)

I *really* wanted to love this place. I’d settle even for just liking it. Sadly, I don’t think I can give Kruger’s Farm Stand any more chances, it just doesn’t cut it. When I moved back to Portland after living in a rural coastal town, one of the things I was most excited about was the option to buy fresh, organic produce once again. The Farm Stand seemed like the closest option to my house in St. Johns and I couldn’t wait to check them out. My first visit, I was disappointed to see that the stand is more of a wholesale produce resale point rather than a farm stand. Very little of the food here was grown at Kruger’s on Sauvie’s. The only items I could find that were grown on the farm were a few very sad looking leeks and some very bitter, very tiny carrots. It seemed like ¾ of their produce was conventionally grown and not organic, but you had to read the sticker codes to know that, nothing was labeled organic or otherwise. The prices were decent, but really not that great. The staff seemed to know nearly nothing about vegetables, the girl I talked to couldn’t even pronounce the names of some of the things they were selling. I tried to shop there once again after that and it was even more disappointing and the staff was even less helpful. Guess I just have to wait for market season to start again and drive to New Seasons in the meantime. Lame.

Seriously mixed feelings here. I love going to the Krugers on Sauvie Island, and thought it was great when they opened a stand in the hood. Maybe it’s because of our warm weather lately, but they seem to have some serious spoilage issues. Like, mold on many veggies and fruits, fruit flies everywhere, and an overwhelming aroma of decay. It would suck to live next door to this place if it always smells that bad.
Prices are very good, if you can find produce that has not started its voyage to the great vegetable compost bin in the sky already. Maybe the issue here is overstocking and too much variety? I hope they can improve, and I’ll be back again to see if that’s happening.

The other reviewers have it correct. If it’s not in season, the fruits and veggies might seem a bit «tired» at this stand. This is the way of farming. Even still, I got a weeks worth of fruits and veggies for $ 20! I like that! The artichokes were rediculously large and cheap (compared to a regular store). They looked fantastic! I like the fact that I don’t have to go all the way to Sauvie Island to get me some Kruger Farm goodness. In fact, I can actually walk here if I wanted to! It’s a winning combo for me.
Side Note: Don’t forget to bring a little extra cash for the Captured by Porches Beer Bus in the same parking lot!

When Kruger’s on Sauvie is closed for the season and I feel lonely for farmers markets, this is a great stop.
Can’t beat the prices, and for the right foods, it’s a fantastic deal. Some of the fruit and veg aren’t the best off season as it is now, but it’s to be expected. The tangerines from last night’s trip were great!
Don’t get me started on the honey crisp apples. They are what fruit aspires to be!

I am happy it’s here. It’s nice to have a place to buy farm fresh produce midweek as all the farmers markets around are weekend only events.
I am not thrilled by the quality or variety here. Absolutely no organics, some veggies look pretty tired, should be heading for the compost bin soon, but whatever IS local and in season is delicious and very fresh. Corn and zucchini right now, super cheap and very good!

You can find all of the same things here as you can at their Sauvie Island market.
In addition to their fruits and vegetables, they have retro sodas, some cheese, Bolga baskets, plant starts, flowers, jams, dressings, salsas and all kinds of pickled goodies.
You will find all of their seasonal produce from the island and plenty of out of season stuff too.
As much as I try to only buy in season and local, sometimes I just really need a Serrano pepper. Kruger’s has everything I need from a produce market and at a fraction of the price of the other grocers on the Peninsula.
As far as I can tell, they are open from at least 9am-​7pm every day.
Note– They accept cards, and I think they take the food stamp cards too.