6/2/2025
| HOPE MURRAY TREMBLAY
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For five decades, Ray’s Family Farm in Southwick has been providing flowers, vegetables, herbs, Christmas trees and more to the community. They are known for being friendly and offering high quality products. And, of course, for Freckles and Wilson — owner Raymond “Skip” Brzoska Jr.’s dogs.
“Customers come to the farm just to see them,” said Skip Brzoska’s wife Heidi Brzoska. “Freckles was a rescue from Lucky Puppy Rescue about five or six years ago and Wilson was a rescue about four years ago.
Skip has always had many farm dogs here at the stand.” Skip Brzoska helped his father, Raymond Brzoska, Sr., establish the farm in the 1970s and has maintained the farm and ownership.
The parking lot of the farm at 723 College Hwy. was where he first started selling strawberries, and today the farm includes 14 greenhouses, a farm stand and display houses. He refers to the farm as a small roadside stand, but it is much, much more.
“Raymond, known by many as Ray, Skip or Skippy, is the owner of the farm. I met Skip in 2012, and I moved to Southwick from Maine, and we have worked side by side at the farm since 2016,” said
Heidi Brzoska. “We currently have three full time and 15 part time employees. We have two of the best in the business farm stand managers — Sabrina Kanner, who has been with Skip for over 20 years, and Paige Gosselin. who handles our computer and scheduling.”
Having longtime employees who have become family is important to the Brzoskas and contributes to the tradition at
Ray’s where there are many repeat customers. Skip Brzoska’s commitment to the farm and community are a big reason why people flock there every season or stop by for some local cheese or milk on their way home from work.
“This farm is and has been his life,” said Heidi Brzoska. “He says many times if he had the winning ticket, he would still be here each and every day doing what he does. This is what he loves and he has a great gift for growing.”
She continued, “Farm stands like ours are going by the wayside as no one wants to take over farming as it is a 24/7 job. We never close. We are open seven days a week 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. We open for Easter flower sales whenever Easter happens to fall on the calendar, and we do not close until Christmas Day.”
Ray’s Family Farm has a large variety of annuals, perennials, herb starters and vegetable starters, hanging baskets of every kind, and so much more. The farm is known for its geraniums and they provide soils, mulches and most everything for their customers’ growing needs.
“Spring/early summer at the farm is a lot of flower sales, and then produce starts coming in from the field,” Heidi Brzoska said. “We sell all our field farm vegetables, squashes, cukes, pickles, lettuces, etc. His cantaloupe — which he is known for far and wide as it is sweet and delicious — as well as watermelon and all other crops. In the latter part of summer, we start selling tomatoes for sauce and canning in bulk, we also provide pickling cukes in bulk for pickling, if mother nature is kind to us and we have them.”
Ray’s Family Farm also has bulk winter root vegetables in late fall, such as 50 pounds of potatoes, onions, beets and more, as well as pumpkins and fall flower baskets. They even have seasonal cut out scenes that children love to be photographed in, making a trip to Ray’s fun for the whole family.
“Also, when winter comes, the farm turns to Christmas trees, wreaths, holiday logs and lots of gorgeous holiday decorations,” said Heidi Brzoska. “I ask [Skip] many times why he does Christmas and he says, ‘It’s tradition and I have always done it.’ We also provide produce from other local farms. If we do not grow it ourselves, he outsources to other local farms. We also carry Highlawn farms milk products, Maple Corner Farms maple syrup, jams and jellies and Billy C’s honey. We also carry bread from Balboni Bakery.”
Heidi Brzoska admitted that there are parts of farming that are totally out of their control. They are at the mercy of the weather, wild animals and disease each and every day. But that doesn’t stop them from ensuring the best possible crops for their customers.
When asked why people should choose Ray’s Family Farm, Heidi Brzoska joked, “because we are awesome, but on a serious note, to keep local farms established and open. Unfortunately, it is a dying profession/industry on this scale and when it’s gone, it’s gone.”
RAY’S FAMILY FARM, 723 COLLEGE HWY. IN SOUTHWICK, IS OPEN DAILY, 9 A.M. TO 7 P.M. FOR MORE INFORMATION, VISIT RAY’S FAMILY FARM ON FACEBOOK.
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