Strawberry patches producing early

Thanks to our hot, sunny spring, strawberries are getting red, fat and juicy early this season – like any day now early.

“They’re coming on, and they’re not waiting for nobody,” said Marge Due, whose family has been growing strawberries at Due’s Berry Farm north of Marysville for 75 years.

Strawberries typically get ripe in mid-June, but at the Dues, they’ll be ready for picking the week of June 6. At other area farms they may get ripe even sooner.

The sunny weather made all the strawberries bloom at once, which means that, when the berries get ripe, they’re going do it one big wave, and then they’ll be gone.

Farmers such as the Dues are worried that strawberry season will come and go so fast that the people who usually come to pluck their own won’t be ready.

“People don’t usually think of strawberries at this time of year,” Due said. “People are busy. School’s not out. Their minds aren’t even going in strawberries’ direction.”

Since most schools don’t let out until mid-June, strawberry farmers also may miss out on some of their best pickers – school kids looking to make an extra buck or two. The Dues pay about $2 a flat, which can add up to serious spending money for an industrious teen.

“If we can’t get them picked, it’ll be a disaster,” Due said, explaining that the family only sells strawberries picked that day. She said adults are welcome, too, and she expects to begin advertising for help within a week.

Strawberry season usually runs from mid-June to mid-July. Due said strawberry fans will be lucky to find any by mid-July this year, and that includes crops planted late.

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