Landscaping Team Weed Whacked Our Strawberry Patch

Location: Minnesota

starting with a new company this year for lawn mowing and maintenance services, and in the first trip out one of their employees basically clear cut our large strawberry patch (and a nearby bush inside a rock bed). we are going back and forth with them grasping at straws for some excuse as to why they didnt screw up - and we're at the point of considering getting a lawyer involved.

We had part of their team out for a cleanup two weeks ago that went well, and during that time the various yard sections were highlighted for that team. Now the 'lawn team' came out and seemingly there was no communication on their end as the lawn team was missing information about the house (needing push mower for part of the yard) as well as seemingly not understanding the strawberry patch location.

what is the extent of their liability to pursue? our patch was pretty dense with strawberry plants, roughly 60-80+ counting all the little shoots and new growth, and some plants may come back as strawberries are hardy but we were hopeful after 3 years cultivating we were finally going to get an appreciable harvest this year.

We offered a $ for replacement plants we thought was reasonable (and probably less than full replacement), but they are giving us some run around on trying to find ways to claim they arent liable ('it wasnt labelled', 'thats where weeds usually are', 'why didnt you tell the weed whacker specifically'...on the last one it was discussed with the mowing guy where to mow, but apparently weed whack dude was a separate dude still chillin in the truck and didnt think he needed any clarifiers....mower seemed to actively avoid the area)...so it feels like they arent going to be able to be reasoned with to accept our offer and need to move to legal routes.

Some initial googling seems to indicate they would be liable for any damages (negligence) - but wondering what extent that is in terms of 'expected harvest' or plants that will potentially grow back vs ones that are just dead