McArthur's Berry Farm

McArthur’s Berry Farm Health & Safety Protocol

Last updated:  May 28, 2022

1.   Customer & Staff Health & Safety:  Keeping customers and staff healthy and safe is our number one priority.  Anyone who doesn’t follow the below may be asked to leave the strawberry patch and possibly the farm.

2.   Food Safety:  The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) states that there is currently no evidence that food or food packages can be a source or route of transmission of the COVID 19 virus.  However, we still recommend that you wash/rinse all fruit with water prior to eating, freezing or processing.

3.   Pre-screening:  Please complete a self-assessment prior to arriving at the farm.  Stay at home if you are expressing symptoms of COVID-19.  Guidelines on how to self-assess are provided from the following web link: https://covid-19.ontario.ca/self-assessment/

4.   Check in/out:  Before entering the strawberry patches find the check in/out location by the farmhouse to obtain instructions on where to pick and to buy baskets if you don’t have any containers with the metric volume clearly labelled on them.

5.   Adult Supervision:  If a family with young children arrive together in one vehicle, we will consider them as one unit that must stay close together.  Families will be assigned one strawberry aisle to pick within. Children must remain with the family unit and follow these protocols.  Failure to do so may result in a family being asked to leave the property.

6.   Baskets/Containers:  We will not be lending out baskets this year.  You may bring your own baskets/containers if a metric volume is clearly shown on it otherwise you will have to buy a 3 Litre basket from us at $1.00/basket.  Our preference is that you bring your own if available.

7.   Payment:  We have a credit/debit card machine that can be used for payment.  It accepts contactless, chip & pin as well as magstripe payments.  It is our preference that all payments be made through a card transaction over cash.  However, please bring cash as well in case there are any issues with the credit/debit card machine.

8.   Social Distancing:  Please maintain a minimum 2m physical distance from other Patrons and staff.  To assist with this, we will make efforts to assign pickers to pick on every other strawberry picking aisle.

9.   Personal Protective Equipment:  We will not be supplying any personal protective equipment such as masks or gloves, patrons will need to bring their own if they wish to wear them.

10. Sanitization:  We will not be supplying any hand sanitizers for Patrons.  Please bring your own hand sanitizer, if you have any available, to clean your hands before checking in as well as before and after checking out.

11. Strawberry Picking:

a.  Please no sampling (eating) the fruit while in the patch;

b.  Please stay within your assigned picking area;

c.  Please pick cleanly within your assigned area, so that other Patrons are less likely to be touching the same fruit.

12. No pre-picked strawberries:  We will not be selling pre-picked strawberries this year.  If you know of someone who is unable to pick their own, please consider picking for them.

13. Rhubarb for sale:  We have limited quantities of rhubarb, but we do have some for sale.  If you want to pick Rhubarb, please follow the same social distancing protocol.  Try to touch only the stems that you want to pick

14. Washrooms:  Please be aware that there are no washrooms or running water available on site.  If you need water to drink or wash your hands, please bring water with you.

15. Garbage:  We consider garbage a health and safety hazard.  We will have a garbage pail by the check out for patrons.  We prefer however, that you take any garbage such as gloves, masks, etc., with you back home for disposal.  It may be a good idea for you to have a bag in your vehicle for this purpose.  Please do not leave any garbage on the ground or in the patch.

16. Pets:  Please leave your pets at home.