Blueberry Farm Hosts Pay-What-You Can Hours During Coronavirus

PLANT CITY, FL — Any other year, Central Florida's pick-your-own blueberry farms would be packed with people eager to pick the choicest berries from bushes brimming with fruit.

This year the fields stand empty and the ripe blueberries remain unharvested as the coronavirus pandemic keeps residents barricaded in their homes.

“COVID-19 has changed everything," said Clay Keel, owner of Keel Farms, Keel & Curley Winery and Keel Farms Agrarian Ale + Cider.

He would know.

A medical planner by occupation, he's been activated by the Army Reserves Medical Command during the coronavirus pandemic to help set up hospitals, like the Javits Center in New York City.

In his absence, his father, Joe Keel, who founded Keel Farms, oversees the farm and its food and beverage productions with the help of other family members who handle daily operations while Clay Keel’s wife, Carmen Keel, a school teacher, teachers her students virtually and helps the Keels’ own children—one a high school senior and the other a third-grader—with their online lessons.

Blueberries are Keel Farms' main product. For years, the farm located outside Plant City has turned the blueberries into popular Keel & Curley wines sold in local grocery and liquor stores as well as shipped around the country.

Each spring, Keel Farms celebrates the blueberry harvest by hosting a three-day Tampa Bay Blueberry Festival attended by thousands of blueberry lovers. And throughout the month of April and May, Keel Farms' u-pick fields are crowded with people eager to fill buckets with blueberries to turn into smoothies, pies, muffins and pancakes.

While the coronavirus altered the leisure activities of people around the Tampa Bay, it didn't stop the blueberries from ripening on the bushes.

To ensure that this year's harvest doesn't go to waste, Keel Farms is offering u-pick hours every day of the week to give residents a chance to harvest blueberries without fear of encountering crowds.

The extended u-pick sessions will be open to a limited number of people with emphasis on maintaining the 6-foot social distancing guidelines in Keel Farms' 15 acres of fields.

“What could be better than taking the whole family on a fun, food-gathering outing in the sunshine and fresh air—picking antioxidant-filled, vitamin-rich, immune-boosting blueberries?" asked Clay Keel. “It’s a win-win. Picking is an amazing family experience, and you come home with lots of healthy fruit for snacking or family baking and maybe bring home a bottle of wine or can of cider, too.”

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U-pickers can park for free at the tasting room, come inside and grab a bucket, which is sanitized with a chlorine disinfectant between uses and then lined with a plastic bag to hold the berries.

Tape on the floor every 6 feet helps keep customers safely apart. Gloved Keel Farms employees monitor the number of people in the building and, every 15 minutes, wipe down surfaces that may have been touched.

Around the farm and retail area, there are hand sanitizer dispensers, hand-washing stations and full bathrooms with soap and water.

Normally, pickers pay $6 per bucket of blueberries. But, with so many people out of work due to the coronavirus restrictions, Keel Farms has launched a Pay-What-You-Can campaign Mondays through Wednesdays for up to three pounds of blueberries per person.

"It helps people who have been hurt financially by the COVID-19 pandemic, and saves the fruit from rotting on the bushes," said Clay Keel.

Although the coronavirus pandemic has had a major impact on this small, family-owned farm, “with the community out here picking, at least the berries won’t go to waste and we can feed the chickens and keep the water on,” said Clay Keel.

Adults are invited to participate in a Grown-up Wine Scavenger Hunt. Two empty wine bottles will be hidden in the blueberry bushes every day. Those who find the bottles will take home a free bottle of Keel & Curley’s fresh, farm-grown fruit wine bottled on-site.

Other produce and fresh eggs are available for sale at Keel Farms, subject to availability, as well as wines and cans of beer and cider.

In addition, the Keel Farms kitchen is offering take-home lunches and dinners.

Keel Farms' kitchen, 5210 Thonotosassa Road, opens at 11 a.m. daily. U-pick sessions run between 9 a.m. and 7 p.m. every day.

For details, visit the website or call 813-752-3892.

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