Emma Lea Farms

Great place for berry picking. I have to admit that I have no other comparisons for the BC area (this is a 3 year tradition now), but Emma Lea does a great job. In addition to a variety of berries and a pretty good price ($ 1.75/lb for blueberries u-​pick), Emma Lea has a nice visitor friendly setup — farm market, ice cream stand, hot dog grill (sometimes), playground for the kids and rest rooms.

We had a wonderful afternoon picking strawberries! They are incredibly sweet and delicious… Now we just have to figure out what to do with 15 lbs of berries! They also sell jams, pickles, potatoes, cabbage and honey. Be sure to have an ice cream sundae from their ice cream booth, made with fresh berries picked that morning! Their sign said that raspberries will be ready for picking in 2 weeks, so we will be back soon! Their are also lots of other little farm stands nearby to get fresh fruits and veggies from. They mostly close at 5pm, so we were too late to get anything from them this trip, but we plan to go earlier next time to stock up (especially from the organic farm around the corner…).
Happy picking!

HAVE AGAIN: picking blueberries was five stars wonderful! The raspberries and blackberries were at the end of the season. One star for the fresh raspberry and strawberry milkshakes — they were more like smoothies and it was hard to tell they had any ice cream.

Today was our third vist (first of this year) and the pricing was great!
In one location you have fresh Strawberries, Raspberries, Tayberries, Blackberries and Blueberries. I have been to a few U Pick farms in the area but by far Emma Lea always comes out on top. The location requires a nice car ride and crossing a century old wooden bridge. Another bonus is their ice cream stand that also sells fresh smoothies/​milkshakes made from the berries. The staff are friendly and their is a decently sized parking lot.
For picking berries yourself, I advise going early to avoid the afternoon sun and to get first dibs on the day’s crop.
The website is helpful but I would always call in the morning to be sure what you want to pick i s available.
One thing I will touch on (based on other reviews) is that the owner of the farm does come off a bit firm on customers that do not follow the rules. I once had witnessed a customer being asked to leave and the berries they had picked were taken back because they were picking in a closed field. I can understand the owners manner as it is her farm and if the fields are closed it would be for a good reason.
UPDATE:
Arriving at the farm for another picking day we started in a field and within 5 minutes the owner herself came over and let us know that there were new fields just opened and they were PACKED with huge, beautiful, blueberries.

While You Pick Farms are nothing new, every summer we are totally smitten with berries and local fresh fruits. We are happy simply because it is an excuse to go out and do something in the sun! Emma Lea Farms is a short drive South of Vancouver, right on Westham Island in Delta, BC. Something about slaving over my own food that it makes them taste all the more better.
Emma Lea Farms isn’t an organic farm, but they use an integrated pest control management system to minimize the use of pesticides. Your berries and the environment is a little safer. Their farm is a fair size and the people are super friendly, fair priced and don’t treat you like immigrants. (Oh, this other racist cherry farm in Kelowna I could go on forever). Trolleys, buckets and boxes are available for use /​purchase and while your precious around. It is also extremely helpful should your little ones gets tired of walking.
The farm offers a few species of berries — strawberries, raspberries, boysenberries, loganberries, black currants, etc… Sometimes berries has been over-​picked the previous day so it is always good to call ahead for the most up to date picking information at 604.946.8216 or check their website
. The picking date can change depending on the spring weather. Prices are about $ 1.50/lbs — pretty economical vs $ 3.99/lbs at your local supermarket!
APPROXIMATE PICKING DATES
Strawberries June 14 — July 10
Raspberries July 1 — July 25
Boysenberries July 15 — August 1
Tayberries July 5 — July 20
Black Currants July 15– August 1
Blackberries July 15 — August 20
Blueberries July 15 — August 20
And after you are tired from picking your berries, relax with a cup of blueberry milkshake, ice cream sundae or take home some jams at their marketplace!

Blueberries & chocolate ice cream sundae.
Blueberries & chocolate ice cream sundae
Blueberries & chocolate ice cream sundae!!!
It bears repeating because it was so amazing. Fresh blueberries atop of chocolate ice cream. Nothing could be any better.
If there’s such a place as «wrong place, wrong time» then this is the antithesis of that. This is «Right Place, Right Time».
A seasonal stop for produce to buy or pick yourself. And a delightful little ice cream stand too.

I visit Emma Lea Farms once a year for berry picking and it has become a wonderful annual tradition. There are always a lot of people and I worry every year that I won’t be able to compete with them to fill my buckets, but I always leave with a great selection of berries. I’ve picked strawberries, raspberries and blackberries at Emma Lea Farms and all were excellent. Bring your own buckets and get them weighed before you head out to the u-​pick fields so that you don’t end up paying for the weight of your containers. Emma Lea Farms now accepts debit, which is great (credit cards are not accepted). If you don’t feel like u-​pick, you can buy already picked berries (slightly more expensive). There are also other things for sale such as a small selection of seasonable vegetables (usually potatoes), jam, and berry-​flavoured treats.

Too large and crowded for my tastes. More of a tourist stop than a berry picking spot. The prices are higher than other farms because they know they’re damned popular. Their berries are really no better than other farms. And on busy days I find one spends more time here than they would at a less crowded farm, because it can be hard to find rows not completely picked over.
The fruit are good, the farm is large, and worth it for a day out from the big city. But if you just want to pick berries quickly and efficiently, there are better farms for it.

Visited the farm at the start of blueberry season this year and was not disappointed! The blueberries were freshly picked, large, and full of flavour — so sweet too.
The farm has a small ice cream stand which isn’t all that exciting. They scoop Chapman’s ice cream (I think) and top it or mix it with fresh fruit from the Emma Lea farm. We had a blueberry/​raspberry sunday.
There is also the main stand selling fresh fruit and some veggies from surrounding area farms. I bought a 10lb box of blueberries which was around $ 2 per pound. If you’d rather pick your own, that’s also an option (and less expensive). Remember to bring your own buckets and to weigh in first before picking!

On the way to Emma Lea Farms, you’ll pass by at least two other U-​pick farms. They look sad and deserted. Then you ride up to Emma Lea and the place is filled with people picking strawberries and eating delicious ice cream.
You’d think that the popularity would affect the amount of berries you could pick, but we had a pretty great haul yesterday. I think they’re pretty good about alternating which fields people can pick at so there aren’t any overpicking problems.
Prices are great — this season the strawberries were $ 1.50 per pound. We got $ 26 worth and made anything and everything you could possibly make out of strawberries except jam — pie, soup, butter, salsa… We won at strawberries.
One star was lost for their strawberry milkshake. Too much milk, too few strawberries.

This year the strawberries are stupendous.
These beauties are in season right now until mid July. Raspberries July 1, blueberries July 15; all depending on the weather, of course.
And with more cash registers this year, the line up moves quickly.
Also new this year, smoothies at the ice cream shack!

*Thanks for a great season Emma Lea!*
And thank you Unilocalers! This is exactly how I wanted to start my birthday day! Breathing in the clean air, picking and possibly a little singing too!
With the big, blueberries just dying to be picked, the flying seagull scaring away scavenger birds – not that I saw one around – and a quiet Friday morning, it’s hard to find a negative thing to say!
Some suggestions for pickin’:
Definitely bring to the fields the wagon (go John Deere!), more buckets, and bucks than you think you’ll need. We picked nearly 20 lbs and could have kept going if we didn’t run out of space and cash!
Save room for bean and potato buying! (As I will be doing next season!)
There’s lots of boxes that you can transfer your gems into for the ride home too. (Ask if they aren’t stacked under the outdoor sink.)
Wash your hands! Even their portapotties have real soap, a sink and pump water to clean up, how swanky!
When you get ‘em home include these «fruits» of labour:
Canning:
–Make blueberry jam, and jars of canned blueberries (they both make a great prezzie),
Baking:
–Some blueberry and zucchini loafs
Freezing:
–Freeze berries
Eating:
–Fill yourself full of fresh berries, if you didn’t get enough on the field already (shhhhh don’t tell — there’s a no sampling rule)

Highlight: HOT Blueberry Sundae!
This place has a wonderful quaint feel. Starting from the small parking lot to the two shacks. Beyond these is an expansive field catered for u-​picking.
The main shack is where you pre-​weigh your container, buy a container if you didn’t bring one, or simply skip the picking and buy freshly packed berries and vegetables on hand.
The second shack is labeled as «Emma’s Ice Cream» which features milkshakes and sundaes. Go straight for their hot blueberry sundae. And when I say hot, I mean literally. Yum! Okay it’s not really piping hot, but a warm blueberry compote. It wasn’t simply drizzled but generously poured on the cup and on top of vanilla ice cream. It’s $ 3 for a small cup or $ 4 for a larger size. Or how about a blueberry milkshake prepared with a laddle of fresh blueberies, a scoop of ice cream and milk in a blender. What more can you ask for in a farm?
The u-​pick experience is better here than the others I’ve tried. Although it’s a smaller area, if you come early, there were only a handful of people so you can have your own row for yourself.
The raspberries were a little bit more difficult of get into because the plants were tall and in the pathway. But with everyone going for the blueberries first, your practically on your own.
Three things that are refraining me from giving this a perfect star and tempting me to drop it down to three stars.
One, how about another shack that serves a few goodies like freshly baked pies, roasted corn and snacks that make this trip even more worthwhile.
Two, a decent bathroom, please. Not two portalets with pee, tissue and whatever else is scattered all over. Yes, it’s a farm. But the year is 2009. Just look over at Krause Berry Farms for ideas on how to build a separate his and hers bathroom on a farm.
Three, cash only. Really? Is this an Amish farm because I must have misread the signs. I understand the low prices, but with no ATM in sight it would help make people spend more especially if they traveled this far already.
For a place like this, it obviously helps to plan ahead. However, if more thought was put into accommodating the guests visiting the farm, this would be my number one choice for a family-​friendly affair.

Went here yesterday with 3 children in tow and had fun! Picked a few rapsberries, a little sparse. Picked lots of blueberries — amazing! Huge and very sweet. Also had a nice bit of relaxation — eating fresh fruit sundaes, watching the kids play on the tractor, enjoying the cooler weather. But if you want to catch the fruit before it goes, you need to get there soon. Because they opened so early this year, they finish u-​pick on Sunday 9^th August. Oh and they only accept cash.

This is probably one of the best U-​pick farms I’ve been to. It’s very family friendly. They’ve got little picnic tables to hang out at and have lunch if you brought one.
As Katie said, the drive up is very scenic and u-​pick is pretty straight forward with the weigh in and weigh out + paying. I picked around 25 pounds of blueberries and my cousin about 10 lbs. We did well. The berries were plentiful and flavourful.
A tip: the blueberries taste better from the smaller bushes with less foliage since the plant uses less energy making the leave and more energy in producing the fruit relatively speaking to the larger, leafier plants.
My biggest pet peeve was when I was sort of in the groove of picking my berries in a certain area and some random person would come into my spot and pick berries there too. Umm. hello? I was planning to pick that!
I can also verify the fresh berry sundaes they sell are superbly delicious and just what one needs after 2 hours on berry picking. It beats costco’s very berry sundaes!
They also sell some lite jams, and other produce there like okanagan cherries, potatoes, beans, cabbage…
To summarize: A fun and tasty way to spend a morning, while getting back to our hunter/​gatherer (sort of) roots,

Marc’s intro reminds me of the book I’m reading now, «In Defense of Food» — straight out of that book!
Went here with Reena and her cousin today and had a great time! What a lovely farm and a scenic drive through Ladner onto Westham Island. The little single lane wooden drawbridge to get to the farm is so cute.
This is a very well organized farm with staff to weigh your basket/​ice cream bucket before you head onto the field. Areas are well market and they have wagons if you have kids or buying out the whole farm like Reena :)
I had a great time picking blueberries which are in season now. Raspberry season just finished but they still have a few on the bushes. Or you can cheat like me and get the pre-​picked ones at the front for only $ 2.50 a container! Blueberries are well priced at $ 1.50 a pound.
There’s a little ice cream shop on site and jams available for purchase. I would definitely come back again!
Just FYI — CASH only!

* Going back to the basics for Review 400 and FTR 250 *
Forget places that prepare food for you. Forget the shops that sell things other people picked. Today we went back to the basics with a wonderful day of U-​pick berry picking.
This is a good sized farm that is very well maintained. The highlight today was the raspberries. I have never seen such large raspberries before. I wonder what they feed them (only half joking as this is a non-​organic farm). The size was a bit scary as I normally prefer smaller berries because they usually taste better. There were plenty of very ripe and easy to pick berries and we loaded up quickly. Priced extremely reasonably at $ 1.50/pound.
There were some remnants of strawberries (it is past the season) left and we picked just about a pound. Also priced at just $ 1.50/pound.
The tayberries, blackberries, boysenberries, and blueberries were all still before their prime picking point, but some are looking like they might be ready soon.
After getting home I can confirm that both the raspberries and strawberries are very flavourful, perfectly ripe, and that is coming from me with a big red stained smile straight to you! I’m still not sure how the raspberries get so big yet still retain such good flavour. But I’m not complaining!
Don’t forget a hat and water — it is sunny out there!