Bumper berry season at the Huntley Berry Farm
Drenching La Nina rain, mild temperatures and a little sunshine thrown in has resulted in one of the best seasons in years out at the Huntley Berry Farm.
“There’s blueberries the size of cherries over there!” exclaims Huntley Berry Farm manager Tony Belmonte, pointing towards a lush patch of blueberry bushes, just past heavily-laden canes of blackberries
“With all the extra rain and the sunshine, we are having a great season! The whole farm is looking amazing! I mean compare this year to a year-and-a-half ago, on the back end of the drought… It is so much greener, so much fresher looking.”
“And if the weather stays the way it has, it is going to be good over the whole produce season.”
Strawberries, raspberries, blueberries and blackberries are all available to be picked, and the vegetable season is right around the corner.
“In the coming days we will be starting our vegetable crop which will include capsium, eggplant, zucchinis, tomatoes, cucumbers and chillies,” said Tony. “It looks like it will be a great season for our vegetables and we planted a lot more this year — we have 5,000 tomato plants that should be ready mid-February.”
The farm opened its gates to pick-your-own visitors late last year, and held a small, COVID-restricted open day on January 8.
Visitor numbers to the popular tourist destination have waned over the past few weeks, as the latest wave of the pandemic has forced people reconsider their travel plans, but Tony is positive about the future.
Numbers through the farm gate have been growing steadily over the last six years and the not-for-profit disability employer has been able to increase the number of supported workers they employ through the program.
“We have 14 supported employees and that number has grown over the years and that's because the farm has been growing with the extra visitor numbers,” said Tony,
“When I started seven years ago, there were only six supported employees, but because we've started to build up the revenue we can afford to put more employees on.”