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Oh! Those Heavenly Strawberries!!!

photo provided Selling fresh from the field berries at Scott’s Berry Farm has these two young women smiling and greeting customers coming in between the rain for those heavenly berries!

photo provided Vermont farmer and agricultural specialist Bill Scott has been growing berries for almost thirty years and speaks openly about the challenging facing the growers this year and last.

Tuesday July 9, 2013

By Cookie Steponaitis

Part of the fleeting sweetness of summer is the brief weeks when Vermonters go to the local berry farms where strawberries, raspberries, blueberries and yes, even peaches are there for the picking.  Often Vermonters pick in bulk eager to eat their fill and store the remainder away for the winter months. However, this year the Vermont grown berries are in danger  and not only is the rain making it near impossible to harvest a full crop but the Spotted Wing Drosophila fly which is an invasive species lays its eggs in the soft, ripe fruit and damages raspberries and blueberries. It was first seen in the state in 2008 and can reproduce in a twelve-sixteen day period.  And, with more numbers being reported each year berry growers find themselves facing not only Mother Nature but an Asian fly that results in the berries becoming inedible.

Bill Scott, a Vermont berry farmer and member of the agricultural community for the past three decades remarked on Saturday at his Ferrisburgh business Scott’s Berry Farm, “This rain is making it tough,” sighed Scott. “It’s hard enough to fight Mother Nature but this SWD fly is making it even harder.” Scott who is echoing sentiments of other berry farmers across the state was open for business and picking was occurring fast but he will not see the crop this year that other years have yielded.  Scott has been at his current location for about five years but was just a few miles away at another site for twenty-three consecutive years and is willing to conclude that this season has many scratching their heads in protest.

While the crop may not be as big this season the berries are nonetheless just as sweet. After talking with the crew at Scott’s this reporter went home with two fresh picked quarts of heaven on earth and proceeded to follow the age old protocol of berry lovers for generations.  Cut up one…. Eat three... Freeze some? Not today. Today it’s all about those heavenly berries and the tastes, smells and moments of a Green Mountain summer. Enjoy everyone and get yours while the getting it good.

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