PLANT CITY, Fla. — For the 17th year, Keel Farms in Plant City is opening up for its annual Blueberry Festival, celebrating agriculture in Hillsborough County.

What You Need To Know

Keel Farms’ annual Blueberry Festival kicked off this weekend

The cold snap has killed about 5% of the blueberry crop, but the farm expects the harvest to start in the next week

The festival is open weekends in April

This year’s cold snap, owners say, is delaying a full bloom.

While the cold only killed about 5% of his crop, Clay Keel, president of Keel Farms, says the adverse weather, which got as low as 23 degrees, is impacting harvest.

“Luckily for us, our varieties are a little bit later—meaning they bloom a bit later in the season—and we were still before the bloom. And blueberries are pretty tough. They can take all the way down to 15 degrees as long as there’s no bloom or berry yet,” said Keel.

That means no picking over Easter weekend, but in the next week, Keel says his 15-acre farm should be ready to pick.

“It’s my first festival, but being that I’m country grown, I absolutely love it, especially when they said we were able to feed the animals and taste fresh blueberries,” Lafe Eastman, a festival attendee, said.

The farm, which has been around since the 80s, is expecting as many as 10,000 people per weekend in April. Keel is looking for 70-degree overnight lows, that, he says, is the sweet spot for harvest.

“The blueberries are ready when they’re ready, right? So it’s hard to plan a festival around when they’re ready,” said Keel. “It’s actually really sustainable. The plants last and produce fruit really well for almost a decade, so these plants are six to seven years old.”

Tart berries won’t stop the festival. Keel Farms instead planted 3,000 Easter eggs for the whole family to enjoy.

“The kids love hunting for eggs. We didn’t have plans for Easter so it was a perfect fit. Beautiful weather, kids had fun,” Mike Slaven, who is visiting from New York, said.

Keel Farms will be closed for Easter Sunday, but will reopen every weekend in April from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. The event is free, but parking will cost $10 per vehicle.