FROM STAFF REPORTS

The strawberry season in Maine should be a good one -- big yield, big berries -- as long as growers get a few consecutive days of sunshine and warm temperatures.

David T. Handley, small-fruit specialist with University of Maine Cooperative Extension, said recent rain should not be a lingering problem.

"I heard from a local grower who said he expects to be open for the weekend," Handley said from his office in Monmouth.

Other sites are already open.

ut the strawberries might have died in the field if not for frost alarms.

Handley said the early spring was a tough one for strawberry farmers in that regard. To safeguard their berries, he said, farmers had to turn on sprinkler systems to combat the icy temperatures.

Call it the shower of salvation.

"Water in the process of freezing," Pike, of Farm to You, said, "gives off heat and it is that little bit of heat that goes into the plant to prevent it from freezing."

Handley said many growers probably are still catching up on their sleep.

"So be kind to them," he said.

Pike, though, shrugs off the lost sleep.

"It is something we have to live with or lose them," he said.

Ironically, the saving water has now become the problem.

Chuck Underwood of Underwood Strawberry and Vegetable Farm in Benton said his strawberry fields have seen about five inches of rain in the last week.

"This morning we had about three-tenths of an inch," he said Monday. "It's just constant. It won't stop."

Pike, too, said rain has been heavy at his farm, although not as bad as what Underwood has experienced.

"We expect to be picking next week anyway," Pike said of the pick-your-own crowd. "With a few days of sunshine we are just going to be inundated with strawberries. That's the way it looks."

In the meantime, both Underwood and Pike already are selling strawberries at their farm stands.

Underwood said he is about seven or eight days ahead of last year's harvest.

In the last three days, he said, his workers have picked 250 to 300 quarts of strawberries a day.

"It's going to be a very good year," he said. "There are a lot of berries there."

Colin Hickey -- 861-9205

chickey@centralmaine.com