Lewis Nursery and Farms’ retail location on Gordon Road will open for the season next Friday, March 26.

Owner and manager Cal Lewis said he’s looking forward to a strong season ahead.

“We anticipate excellent strawberry and blueberry crops this year given the weather,” Lewis said.

Lewis said a late winter freeze in February last year caused the farm to lose about half of its blueberry crop. He explained that blueberries like a cold winter, like the one the region has had this year, so barring another late freeze, it should be a good year for growers throughout Southeastern North Carolina.

Lewis said that despite last year’s loss of berries and the onset of COVID-19, the nursery and farm had a strong retail season.

“We were allowed to be open as an essential business and we quickly adapted to the situation by streamlining our processes,” Lewis said.

Some of those included designated entrance and exit points for the pick-your-own fields, as well as a change from weighing each bucket after picking to pre-paid buckets in various sizes, which limited the amount of back-and-forth handling between employees and customers.

Additionally, social distancing was implemented both in the fields as well as in the nursery and at the ice cream stand.

“We’re going to be keeping with a lot of the same safely protocols this season,” Lewis said, “perhaps modifying things where applicable.”

For instance, last year the ice cream shop did not offer ice cream in cones, only by the cup or pint, but Lewis believes they can safely serve cones this season. Customers can expect Lewis’ seasonal ice cream flavors such as blueberry, strawberry, banana, pineapple, coconut and chocolate.

While the pick-your-own season will not begin until mid-April, strawberries grown in Lewis’ solar tunnels will be available when the farm stand opens next week.
 
Lewis Nursery and Farms will be open from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 1 to 5 p.m. Sunday. Once the pick-your-own season begins, the opening time will shift to 8:30 a.m.

Lewis Nursery and Farms is located at 6517 Gordon Road.

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