Maine’s Strawberry Season is Early, but Off to a Roaring Start

Last year's strawberry season was trash.

Every Spring, Maine has a new treat growing out of the ground, seemingly every week. Some folks look forward to fiddlehead season. Or maybe your thing is ramps. Or maybe dandelion greens... Most often, I look forward to strawberries. Sure, you can buy them year-round at the grocery store, but there's nothing quite like Maine strawberries, right out of the ground.

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Last year, it was awful. The weather last June wasn't even the least bit cooperative. It rained more than the sun shined for the month. There were some 20 days, where it rained on some level. That's not gonna make the berries pop. But this year, the weather has been awesome, and strawberries have decided to come quite early this year.

Maine strawberry farms are already raking in the bucks.

Last year, farmers were left scratching their heads, trying to figure out creative ways to make the best of a terrible season. Right now, farmers are saying the weather's been so good, that strawberries have shown up almost two weeks early, according to WABI. As long as the weather stays fairly consistent, berries should be around for a quite a while.

There is a delicate balance, though. Despite needing ample sunshine, strawberries need about an inch of rain each week, to keep producing. So it's like a little balancing act of just the right amount of sun, with just the right amount of rain. If that holds, we'll all be having the best strawberry shortcake ever on the 4th of July.

Maine has tons of "pick-your-own" berry farms.

Picking strawberries is totally one of Maine's best family activities. Spending some time in the sunshine with the whole family, gathering a bounty of berries for everything from breakfast to dessert, is time well spent. Pick-your-own farms are easily found all over Maine.

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Then it's onto raspberry and blackberry season too. Maine may not have the longest growing season in the world, but we make up for it in some of the most delicious fruits and veggies you'll find anywhere, and half the time, they grow wild right in your yard. If that's not true Maine, I don't know what is.

Picking your own berries is the funnest part, right?