Strawberry sweet: The Front Porch brings back strawberry festival

SAULT STE. MARIE — Fresh strawberries will be the talk of the town this week with the return of a local strawberry festival.

For the past 15 years, the Front Porch, a local farm and garden shop, has been selling farm products to Chippewa County residents. The Front Porch is located a few miles south of Sault Ste. Marie, near Pickford, and regularly brings in hundreds of visitors to their annual fall and spring festivals.

This year will see the return of one of their most popular festival events, a strawberry festival where EUP residents and visitors will see hundreds of strawberry-themed products and enjoy fun family activities.

The Front Porch is a family-owned business run by owner Kristi Plesscher and her daughters and niece. With the store, they were looking for ways to help other families find fun things to do in the area.

"It started because we were looking for family-friendly events, we knew so many people in town looking for things to do with their families," said Plesscher.

Strawberries imported from Charlevoix are one of the store's most popular products.

"We have a lot of popular products we could have built the festival around, but it can be hard for people up here to find a good strawberry. You can't just find it in a grocery store always," said Plesscher.

Subscribe: Get unlimited access to our content

The festival includes dozens of vendors as well as kids crafting stations, face painting stations, food trucks, live music and more.

The original festival was put on hold years ago after the shop dealt with an unexpected fire, followed closely by the COVID-19 pandemic.

While the event hasn't been held for years, the Front Porch is still expecting plenty of community support.

"It gets bigger and more popular every year we do it," said Plesscher.

The festival begins at 10 a.m. on June 29, located at the newly expanded Front Porch at 18052 M-129.

— Contact Brendan Wiesner: BWiesner@Sooeveningnews.com

This article originally appeared on The Sault News: Strawberry sweet: The Front Porch brings back strawberry festival