Strawberry Season in Maine!

One of the first things we look forward to each summer when we arrive in Maine in late June is our attendance at the annual Strawberry Festival sponsored by the local historical society here in New Gloucester. This year is no different and last night we headed over to the First Congregational Church in the Lower Village along with summer friends and neighbors as the festival celebrated its 44^th year. We have been vacationing in Maine for the past 31 summers, and have spent the entire summer (June - October) here for the past decade. What better way to actualize the belief that one truly can go home again.
 
And strawberries are on everyone’s minds this time of year. The strawberry season in Maine is all too short. The best time to pick them is typically during a three to four week period between mid-June and mid-July, with the height of the season right around the July 4^th holiday. Unfortunately this year spring has come late with a great deal of rain and the harvest is running about a week behind schedule here in Cumberland and Androscoggin counties.

The earliest varieties were harvested only a week or so ago, and the local pick-your-own operations at the nearby Gillespie Farms, part of New Gloucester’s Pineland Farms Produce Division (just a mile or so from our summer cottage) is just getting underway. Gillespie’s is one of the memorable local PYO farms, cultivating 300 acres with a variety of fruits (strawberries, blueberries, and raspberries), sweet corn, and vegetables for wholesale and direct purchase. Its PYO operation is open during the growing season from the first strawberries in June through the last of the high bush blueberries in August. My wife always looks forward to a few early mornings picking a flat of strawberries. This season barely opened in mid June and there were very real concerns that the harvest would not arrive in time for the local festivals held around the Pine Tree State.

Disappointment was averted when last night the Historical Society served up "scrumptious" local native strawberries served over frozen custard from Hodgman’s stand, a summertime institution in the Upper Village since 1946, and fresh-baked biscuits, all of this topped off with genuine whipped cream. We gathered in the church’s Vestry Community Room where we were entertained by the dulcet tones of the Hall Family Band which this year stood in for the perennial Berry Berry Good Band. A good time was had by the hundreds who showed up.

Summer is here now and we look forward to seasonal weather and successful harvests before autumn descends on northern New England in September. Now I’m waiting for the fresh corn to be picked. It’s looking great.