THUNDER BAY – Belluz Farm finished the first week of its strawberry season for 2024 on Sunday.
Jodi Belluz, partner at Belluz Farm, said they are finally getting into a full swing.
“The weather was so cold and things were ripening so slowly, we were only open for a few days.”
After the nice warm weather in Thuner Bay, the farm is seeing lots of berries coming on.
“I feel like today is the start of our true first week.
“We're going to have for sure three weeks of our strawberry season, maybe four this year,” Belluz said.
To come to the farm and pick strawberries you need head to Belluz Farm’s website to book a slot ahead of time, she said.
“Once you have that, then you just come on out to the farm with your baskets, if you got some. We've got some baskets here for you as well too, if you need some, and we'll get you started picking some strawberries.”
Belluz was excited to see some nice crowds picking lots of berries. The farm can see up to 300 people in one day, she said.
“It's really incredible. My in laws, my husband's parents, started the farm in 1974 with ‘pick your own.’ Before that it was a potato farm, before that it was a cattle farm. It's kind of made different evolutions over the years. They started the ‘pick your own’ as well as all the market vegetables.
“It's super incredible for my husband and I, we're the third generation on the farm now to be continuing the tradition. We're super thankful because it's the community of Thunder Bay that has kept us going for all these years,” Belluz said.
The farm tries to be open every morning however, it is weather dependent.
“If folks want to keep in touch with the front page of the website or our farm info line, then they'll get a sense of what days we're open,” she said.
Belluz said the next fruit up for ‘pick your own’ is saskatoon berries.
“Saskatoon will start in about a week and a half to two weeks. Then next up is the raspberries, which is another exciting time and that will be sometime around the last week of July this year.”
There are vegetables to pick on Belluz Farm as well, she said.
“Peas are going to start in also about a week and a half to two weeks. Yellow and green beans will start in two to three weeks. There are lots of folks waiting for the pickling cucumbers too and we do pick your own pickling cucumbers, but those don't start until about the first week of August here in Northwestern Ontario.”
Belluz said pick your own strawberries on the farm are charged by the litre.
“We have a price per litre for the strawberries. If you do bring your own baskets, they just need to have a litre volume on them. Otherwise, we do have baskets here and it's the same for all of our products.
“We do it by volume rather than by pound. All of the pricing information is on our website and we take all types of payments,” she said.
