Tough Season for Strawberry Fields
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The nearly constant rain since mid-June and high temperatures have been a boon for some crops, but not the region's strawberries — and especially not for the pick-your-own farms.
"Awful" is how Dan Tawczynski described his harvest this year. "We've had one day without rain since the first week of June," said the owner of Taft Farms in Great Barrington on Sunday.
The problem for local farms is a surfeit of fast-ripening berries — and not enough people to pick them.
"When we have good weather people respond; when it's bad, they stay away," Tawczynski said.
.JPG) Joanne Barcomb weighs berries at Mountain View Farm. |
"I went on vacation on June 23 and it has rained at some point every single day," she said, standing outside the farm's strawberry shed on Sunday. "When it rains, people don't come out and it's done nothing but rain. When the sun is out, the crowds are good."
The past two days in Northern Berkshire have been a welcome respite from the wet, muggy weather. But it may not have come in time for the pick-your-own farms that see weekends as their busiest days.
The strawberry season lasts about six weeks; there's only a week or two left. Most farms should be open this weekend and the next. Weslowski said Mountain View will open July 5 and 6, "and we'll see happens from there."
On Sunday, a steady stream of vehicles drove down the dusty lane to the grass parking area near Mountain View's rolling acres of berries. It was a pretty good day, said Weslowski, despite the oppressive heat.
A "hefty chunk of business" had come in during the cooler morning hours but it seemed to still be below average: "When we're busy, the parking lot is filled and the fields are full."
In the distance, a dozen or pickers were filling up flats of berries. Peg and Michael Weslowski have been offering berry picking for 19 years and have had up to six acres under strawberries. This year, four acres were open for picking.
Mountain View sells pumpkins, mums, squash and other produce in the fall but "this is our big crop for the spring," said Weslowski.
 Lily, 2 1/2, points to the berries her parents picked. |
Weslowski thinks it's more than rain causing the decrease in customers this year.
"People will spend money somewhere else. Weather has had a lot to do with it but the economy has a lot to do with it, too," she said. "They comment on our prices but costs go up."
Elizabeth Lock and Fred Sears of Dalton have been coming to Mountain View Farm for the last few years to pick a couple flats of strawberries. Sears turns some of them into syrup, packaged in Berkshire Brewing Co. bottles, to give out for Christmas presents.
"It's a great little place to come," said Sears, as children Ella, Lucy and Freddie Sears bounced around them. It wasn't so much the rain as their work schedules that determined their visit, he said.
It was the same for another group — work and other commitments had delayed their strawberry trip, said Kim Gallagher.
"We love strawberries," said Gallagher of North Adams, who was picking them with Brian Wirtes and their 2 1/2-year-old daughter, Lily.
But she's noticed the lack of people in the fields as she's driven by: "Usually they're pretty packed on weekends."
Wirtes, who had worked at the farm some years ago, said you could see recent hail and rain had taken a toll on the crop.
.JPG) .JPG) Elizabeth Lock, Fred Sears and Freddie and Lucy Sears pick berries. |
Tawczynski said fermentation had begun in one section of his three acres of berries. "It smells like wine."
The humid rainy weather was making the strawberries ripen so fast, it's hard to harvest them before they go bad. Taft Farms was paying $1 a quart to get them picked, "but they're ripening as fast as they pick them ... It's a shame about all the bad ones."
Tawczynski estimates that his business, too, is down about 10 percent. His early and mid-June berries were "excellent" but he doesn't hold out much hope for the late-blooming berries.
At Ioka Valley Farm in Williamstown, owner Melissa Leab said they were ripening faster but the farm hadn't seen much of a drop in patrons from last year because of the weather.
Ioka has two-thirds of an acre for berry picking. "We've been able stay open around the rain," said Leab, who owns the farm with husband Don. "We've got plenty of ripe berries to pick."
It could have been worse. Hail storms hit parts of the Berkshires, the Pioneer Valley and eastern New York last month, wiping out crops in some places. Some 22 counties in New York were affected. In contrast, farms to the east seemed to have just the right amount of sun and rain.
But Tawczynski noted, "we still had a good harvest. We just lost a lot more [berries] than we should have."
At Mountain View Farm, the owners' daughter Kim Weslowski was out in the field with a cooler and a big umbrella to beat the heat.
She watched the dozen or so pickers making their way up the rows. "It's usually way busier than this," she said, looking up at the threateningly dark sky. "We'll stay out here until we hear thunder."
 Above, Kim Weslowski leads a group to a patch of strawberries. Pick Your Own Strawberry Farms Most strawberry patches should be open this weekend and possibly the weekend after. Some are open weekdays as well. This list is not complete.
Mountain View Farm, Lanesborough, on Cheshire Road, near the intersection with Partridge Road; 413-445-7642
Ioka Valley Farm, Hancock, 3475 Route 43; 413-738-5915 Taft Farm, Great Barrington, Route 183 and Division Street; 413-528-1515 Green River Farm, Williamstown, 2480 Green River Road; 413-458-2470 |
