Third annual Tulip Festival marks start of season at Trueman Blueberry Farms in New Brunswick

With close to 60,000 tulip blooms — twice as many as last year — popping up over the next few days, the third annual Tulip Festival has officially sprung at Trueman Blueberry Farms in Aulac, New Brunswick.

“It’s doubling or tripling every year. Last year was phenomenal. This year, by all indications, is going to be bigger than last year. It’s very important to the farm, it’s what carries us through the spring and into the summer, helps us get our season started,” said Tom Trueman. “It’s a spring flower and of course the winters in the Maritimes seem to be long and last week this time we were freezing to death so everybody is looking for that reason to get out in the spring and see some colour.”

Friday marked the first day of the festival, which is celebrated over the May long weekend and with many kids off school in New Brunswick, several people made it out to the farm to pick flowers and spend some time outdoors.

“I just decided because my daughter has no school today so it was a perfect day to, it’s beautiful and we thought that coming the first day would be better to take pictures, it would be not so crowded like during the weekends and it’s our first time here so it’s really nice. We are enjoying it very much,” said Bianca Olivera who was there with her daughter.

For another trio, the flowers provided a good excuse to bring three generations together for an afternoon.

“The Tulip Festival is really nice. It’s a special time just with mother and daughter and granddaughter because we don’t get to spend a whole lot of time together so this has been really special,” said Nancy Carson.

Her daughter, Meagan Hamilton, added, “Just to spend time together, enjoy, it’s a beautiful day out.”

The bloom is expected to last at least into next weekend and visitors have the opportunity to pick flowers to take home or just enjoy the beauty of them.

“The pictures are really what it’s all about. We certainly sell some blooms, but from our perspective, we’re creating a photo-op,” said Trueman.

New this year is a view of the flowers from the Evangeline.

“We’re just trying to get better at what we do,” said Trueman. “We have some more offerings, we’re adding more things for the kids to do, of course, the train is running and this will be our first full season with the train, which is kind of our anchor right at the moment. It’s a lot of fun for kids and adults alike to take a ride through the farm on the train. Every year we push a little bit to try and get a little better, offer a little more.”

The hope is to provide something for everyone so all visitors can leave the farm with a deeper appreciation of what it offers.

“We grow different fruit on the farm and we grow honey, etc. so we firmly believe that engaging the consumer with agriculture and to see how farms work and get people out of the city and a chance to see how things are done to produce the food that they enjoy every week is important,” said Trueman.

Trueman Blueberry Farms is open daily from 11 a.m. until 9 p.m.

For more pictures of the Tulip Festival, click here.

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