Salem — Lenny and Delores Gimbut trudged through the boggy parking lot of the Salem Herb Farm Wednesday morning. A sign on the road read "welcome" and a floral flag waved in the cool breeze.

"I look at that sign every time I go by," said Delores, who had been eagerly awaiting the farm's opening day for the season. "We wait for this place every year."

That is a common refrain when it comes to the opening of three of Salem’s most popular seasonal businesses – the Salem Herb Farm, Salem Valley Farms Ice Cream and Burnett’s Country Gardens – all of which have opened in the two weeks since the first day of spring.

The weather, however, has not always been spring-like. And while that has put a damper on business, the owners say their customers’ spirits are still high and hopeful.

At the herb farm on Wednesday, the Gimbuts crossed the soft, gravel-covered ground of the backyard sales lot, which during warmer months is full of colorful plants and whimsical garden décor, but for the opening was empty and still dotted with piles of snow.

The farm's covered greenhouses held the signs of spring that the Gimbuts had come searching for: rows of lettuce, pansies and the warm smell of earth.

"Everybody in this greenhouse wants sun, including us," said farm owner Anne Duncan, referring to the neat rows of flowers and the women who were tending to them.

Duncan said that many of the folks who stopped in on the first day of the season wouldn't be able to buy anything to plant just yet since the nighttime temperatures are still dipping below 35 degrees, but she encouraged them to follow the Gimbuts' lead: come in to find inspiration and be reminded that spring will eventually return.

"What we try to encourage people to do is stop in and smell, stop and look," Duncan said. "That'll get you through."

Down the road, Burnett’s Country Gardens was likewise helping customers find inspiration, if not a plant to put in the ground.

“The weather is a garden center's best and worst friend," said Adam Thibeault of Burnett's, which opened on March 20, the first day of spring.

"After being closed for three months and with such a hard winter, we are happy to have the doors open," he said.

Burnett's opening is more a symbolic start of the season and a time for shoppers to start planning their gardens, Thibeault said.

This early in the season, the garden center hopes to entice customers to visit the store with events like their Signs of Spring Easter celebration on Saturday and Sunday, which will feature baby animals, pansy container planting and a scavenger hunt.

Residents have been equally eager to treat their taste buds to warm weather treats. For that, they come to Salem Valley Farms Ice Cream, which had an unusual opening this year.

"The owner said this is the first time he's ever had to plow the driveway to open up," said employee Matt Sanders.

The ice cream stand, which opened March 19, was forced to close early on its second day as a snow storm passed through. Until the weather gets warmer, it will be open on a Thursday through Sunday schedule.

The ice cream vendor opened just in time for April vacations, which was lucky for the five Olwert sisters who, with their mother, made the trip down from Wethersfield to visit Salem Valley Farms as a part of the Connecticut Ice Cream Trail and as a way to celebrate their spring break. They had stopped first at Scottie’s Frozen Custard in Colchester but found it was not yet open.

Sisters Reagan, 5, Lily, 9, Aly, 12, Mykayla, 15, and Miranda, 17, were all smiles as they happily licked their ice cream cones with flavors like birthday cake, brownie explosion and coffee.

The sisters chased each other around the lawn, which in summer is full of crowded picnic tables, and posed for their mother, Crystal, to take a picture with the iconic red barn that is Salem Valley Ice Cream.

“We’re just looking forward to enjoying the outdoors again,” Crystal Olwert said.

j.hopper@theday.com

Twitter: @JessHoppa