Farm turns to curbside strawberry sales, plans safe u-picking

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — Coronavirus restrictions cancelled many of our favorite spring activities in the Cape Fear, but one local farm is hoping they won’t have to stop residents from picking strawberries.

Lewis Strawberry Nursery and Farm opens once a year from March to June. For 28 years, the farm has been known for their acres of fresh berries where families can come and pick them.

Owner Jackie Lewis says the berries were blooming so they had to get sold.

“Usually we are in to u-pick by now,” Lewis said. “We would have been u-picking two weeks ago. Since we have been under stay at home, we’ve delayed that. We are hoping in the next two weeks to get into that. If we do, it will be following all the guidelines. It will be just a few people in… six feet apart.”

U-picking hasn’t started, but curbside pickup has been a hit. Lewis says it doesn’t compare to their seasonal crowd, however.

“Right now we are not seeing weekends as our biggest time,” Lewis said. “The weekdays… Mondays have turned into a Saturday. Thursday has turned into a Saturday. We are just finding different days are more popular out here than the weekend.”

Lewis says there are no cone options with ice cream and strawberries are only sold in the clamshell.

“We’re doing milkshakes because that’s what we are famous for, but we are also doing our clamshell rather than our green paper cups because it was an open cup and we didn’t want people touching the berries,” Lewis said.

All workers are wearing masks and gloves at all times and shoppers must be six feet apart in the garden.

She says the Castle Hayne location is now open for curbside, as well.