UPPER ONSLOW - A favourite summertime treat is starting to hit the local stores.
"Things are going very, very well - the berry best," laughed Jim Lorraine, who has 17 acres of strawberries at Riverbreeze in Upper Onslow.
He said they are about a week ahead of schedule due to the spring weather, but it could have been even further ahead had it not turned cold and wet.
"If you would have asked me a month or so ago I would have said we would have been picking by June 1st," he said.
It is a sentiment echoed by Curtis Millen, who has about 45 acres of strawberries in the Glenholme and Little Dyke area.
"It looked like they were going to be real early, now it appears they're more close to being on time," he said.
Lorraine is optimistic about the season, which likely will run until about the third week of July.
"We want to have fairly dry days. Last year it rained the first 18 days of the season," he said. "This year, however, it's looking much better than that. We're quite encouraged by the weather forecast."
Millen said he is just looking for "reasonable weather."
"We just don't need high temperatures and downpours," he said.
Both Lorraine and Millen are selling their product through supermarkets in the Truro area. Both are expecting their u-picks to open in about a week's time. Lorraine also has roadside stands where he sells his product.
An issue in past years is getting the ripe berries off the fields before they rot. Lorraine believes that won't be a problem for him this year.
"I think we may have that issue sorted out," he said. "We have a lot of teenagers signed up to pick for us this year."
And if the weather forecast holds it will help the pickers be able to get into the fields and harvest the product.
Millen has 85 Jamaicans working here for the summer to help ensure the product gets to market. It is the largest group he has had since first bringing the workers to Colchester County about a decade ago.
Lorraine said his fall strawberry season starts Aug. 1 and runs until October.
jmalloy@trurodaily.com
