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Third annual Jaemor Farms Strawberry Festival set for May 7
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Casey, Jonah and Matt Fleury make their way through the strawberry field to find the best unpicked strawberries during last year’s Strawberry Festival at Jaemor Farms in Alto. More than 450 gallons of strawberries were picked.

Jaemor Strawberry Festival
When: 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday, May 7
Where: Jaemor Farms, 5340 Cornelia Highway, Alto
Cost: Free admission; Prices vary depending on activity
More Info: www.jaemorfarms.com/strawberry-festival

Strawberries are blooming in bushels and Jaemor Farms is celebrating that fact with its annual all-day, family-friendly festival.

The third annual Jaemor Farm Strawberry Festival will be from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday, May 7, at 5340 Cornelia Highway in Alto.

General admission to the farm is free, with the popular u-pick activity costing $14 a gallon with a minimum of 1 gallon per four people. Other prices vary depending on what visitors choose to do.

The high demand for u-pick strawberries inspired the festival, said Caroline Lewallen, Jaemor Farms Marketing coordinator.

“The Echols family, the owner of the Jaemor Farms, really puts a place of importance on what the customer is interested in and what the customer wants,” she said. “So we thought that the strawberry festival would be a fun activity to start answering that need of a u-pick opportunity at Jaemor.”

The only other time Jaemor Farms offers u-pick strawberries is during the week for children during school field trips, Lewallen said

While the u-pick activity is the main attraction, the strawberry festival will feature arts and crafts, homemade items, farm tours via hayride and even a couple of popular activities they usually have in the fall.

“We also have a strawberry cook-off in the market that is free to enter,” Lewallen said.

Some on-site vendors will sell their wares including: biblical T-shirts, rustic decor bottles, jewelry hangers, jewelry, barn wood decor and signs, homemade lotions and scrubs, goat soap and lotions, beeswax candles and rubs, soy candles, picture frames and home decor, handmade crochet items, oils, string art, paintings and painted furniture, pottery, barbecue smokers, birdhouses and bird feeders and turned wood.

New this year will be live music from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., and at 11 a.m. a dance school will perform.

From 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. the mobile dairy classroom, an educational trailer with a real dairy cow, will conduct a milking demonstration, sponsored Georgia Dairy Farm.

“Mountain Fresh Creamery, a local dairy farm here in the county, is going to be serving some milk samples during that time,” Lewallen said.

A couple of strawberry items will be available for sampling, too.

“Usually we let customers taste test our strawberry cake that we sell year-round and then, of course, our strawberry preserves that we sell year-round too,” she said. “It’s a day to do more than just shop around at the farmer’s market basically.”

Being a popular event for the community, the expected turnout is high. Jaemor encourages people to come early before the field is picked out, Lewallen said.

“We’ve usually seen around 1,200 people, give or take, depending on the weather,” she said. “Somewhere around 1,500 to 2,000 people is what we’d love to see.”

U-pick starts at 9 a.m. and ends at 5 p.m. unless the field is cleared earlier.

“We will be posting on our social media platform, Facebook and Instagram, as to if and when we do sell out on strawberries that day,” Lewallen said.

For those not interested in picking strawberries, the fruit can be purchased in the market for the same price.

But organizers hope young and old venture to Alto for the festival on the family farm

“We want people to experience what our family has done for many years and to see where their food is grown,” Lewallen said. “We believe in educating our customers in what we do and why we do it. It’s just overall a fun, educational day no matter the age of your family.”