Maine to see strong strawberry crop Fruit small but plentiful this year

A rough winter may have compromised the size of the strawberries in this summer’s Maine harvest, but the quantity of berries will more than make up for it, experts said Friday.

Strawberries set their flower buds in the late summer and fall of the previous year, said David Handley, small-fruit expert for University of Maine Cooperative Extension.

“Because we had a long, glorious fall, the plants kept growing and forming their flower buds,” Handley said Friday.

As a result, producers across the state are reporting a great number of berries on each plant.

“But you can’t have your cake and eat it, too,” Handley said. “The plant still has limited resources, and the high quantity may come at the expense of the berries’ size.”

Handley is growing 24 trial varieties of strawberries at Highmoor Farm, a UM Cooperative Extension experimental facility in Monmouth. His summer crew picked the first seven varieties Friday morning.

Handley explained each variety’s characteristics and history to the college students, then led a taste test.

“Let’s just say, nobody spat anything out,” Handley said.

Every berry easily passed the sweetness test.

Handley said that central and northern Maine strawberry fields should be ripe for picking this weekend, while southern acreage is already in full swing.

Strawberries used to be ready by the Fourth of July and the season lasted just two weeks, said Deanne Herman of the state Department of Agriculture’s marketing division on Friday. But because farmers are becoming more savvy and using methods such as plastic tunnels and long-producing varieties, the season begins earlier and lasts longer.

Herman said more than 100 commercial growers are listed with the Agriculture Department, but that represents only a fraction of the industry.

A recording Friday at Forever Green Strawberry Farm in Fairfield announced that pick-your-own fields won’t be ready for one more week, while already-picked berries are available at the farm stand.

Elaine Goodwin of Goodwin Farms in West Gardiner said her harvest was also four to seven days behind. “The fruit set has been tremendous, but the size is down,” she said. “We certainly could use some rain. One week we got 5 inches, and then it got very dry.”

At Silveridge Farm in Bucksport, last weekend’s thunderstorms provided plenty of rain for Bob Chasse’s 11 acres of berries. “They are looking good, and we’ll start pick-your-own on Sunday,” he said.

But Chasse said that Maine weather is a fickle thing, and “you never really know until the season is over.”

A list of pick-your-own strawberry farms can be found at getrealmaine.com, the state Department of Agriculture’s Web site.