The bakery line on Krome Avenue is about to form again. Knaus Berry Farm opens for its new season on Tuesday, October 13, at 16790 SW 177th Ave. in the Redland, with cinnamon rolls warm out of the oven, the shake stand running and, for the second season at its new home, credit cards accepted at the counter.

The date South Florida plans around

There are people in Miami-Dade who mark the calendar by two seasons: when Knaus is open and when it is not. The farm itself leans into the idea on its own history page, and the opening date is the one piece of news its followers wait for every fall. This year the farm posted it on its Instagram profile: doors open Tuesday, October 13, and from then on the bakery runs Tuesday through Sunday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

It closes Mondays, and the farm lists four holidays when the doors stay shut all day: Thanksgiving, Christmas Day, New Year's Day and Easter. Every other day of the season is fair game, and weekend lines are part of the ritual.

A second season on Krome Avenue

For more than 60 years, Knaus meant a roadside stand near SW 248th Street, across the road from a middle school whose students, generation after generation, ran over for a shake or a bag of rolls. In 2025 the farm moved to its current spot on Krome Avenue, and the change brought things regulars had gone without for a lifetime: more parking, real bathrooms and, for the first time, the ability to pay with a card instead of digging for cash.

The family story behind it starts a century ago. Brothers Jess and Harley Knaus came to Miami from Missouri in 1924 to work the construction boom, then went back to farming after the 1926 hurricane ended it. Jess's son Russell returned to the Redland around 1954 to grow strawberries, and his brother Ray joined him in 1956. They sold berries from a small stand. The bakery came almost by accident, after a broker tasted cookies made by Ray's wife, Barbara, and told her they were good enough to sell.

The farm survived a fire that gutted the stand and the barn in March 1971, and it came through Hurricane Andrew in 1992 with broken windows and missing awnings. It never advertised. People simply came, liked what they ate and came back.

What to order, and what it costs

The cinnamon rolls are the reason for the drive. The farm's posted menu puts a dozen at $17.40, a half dozen at $8.90 and a single roll at $2. Pecan rolls come in a pan of ten for $21.50. The bakery case also holds white, dilly, honey wheat, raisin and Mountaineer bread loaves, herb and cheese dinner rolls, and pies in key lime, guava, mango, apple, cherry, blueberry, pecan and shoofly, priced from $12.75 to $15.50.

Across the way, the shake stand pours strawberry, chocolate, pineapple, vanilla, mango, coconut, coffee and cookies and cream shakes, $6.60 small and $8 large. The strawberry shake is the classic pairing with a roll still warm from the oven. There are also sundaes, brownies at $3 each, cookies by the eight and key lime, strawberry, mango, pina colada and coconut slushies for the walk back to the car.

Strawberries you pick yourself, coming in December

The other big change this year is out in the field. Knaus is growing its own strawberries again, and the farm says U-Pick should start around mid-December and run into March, if the growing season cooperates. Picking days will be Thursday through Sunday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. The farm plans to announce the exact first day on social media in early December, so families who want to make a morning of it should watch the farm's Instagram rather than guess.

How to do opening week right

Go early, and go on a weekday if your schedule allows. The farm opens at 8 a.m., and the first weeks of the season draw the biggest crowds of the year. Bring patience, and a cooler if you are buying for the office or for family up the coast. Plan around Mondays, when the farm is closed.

If you cannot get to the Redland, the farm's website links to shipping through Goldbelly. But for most of South Florida, the trip is the point: Krome Avenue, a strawberry shake, a box of rolls on the passenger seat, and the first sticky bite before you are back on the turnpike.