No Strawberries, But Look On the Sweet Side

Each year thousands of families visit Lyman Orchards to hand pick fresh fruit, but the pick-your-own strawberry fields at the orchards in Middlefield are unusually empty this year, void of both people and plants.

The problem, it turns out, has nothing to do with the severe winter we suffered through earlier this year.

"This is really a carryover from the damage we had last year. In 2009 we had a fairly large population of grubs in the plants. Then in 2010, the plants were pretty much killed during winter," explained President John Lyman III, who said a lack of snow the previous winter had exposed the weakened plants to cold temperatures and strong, cold wind.

"The snow is a natural protection," Lyman said.

The orchard attempted to bolster its weakened strawberry crop in July 2010 by planting three-and-a-half acres of new plants, which Lyman said was "too late." It became clear this spring that the plants would not be ready for the pick-your-own season.

"The plants are coming along now," he said. "But we're in a rebuilding program."

According to Lyman the orchard will offer up to five acres of pick-your-own strawberries next year.

In the meantime, he said the orchard is offering a limited number of strawberries harvested from the new fields, as well as strawberries grown on local farms.

"We will have pick-your-own raspberries at the end of June and blueberries in July. We might even open for limited [strawberry] picking, during the middle of the week, if we thought we could handle it," he added.

The pick-your-own season at Lyman Orchards kicks into high gear each spring with the Annual Strawberry Festival, which will be held this weekend.

Despite the lack of locally harvested strawberries, the festival promises to celebrate "everything strawberry!"

For more information on the Strawberry Festival, click here.

You can also call the 24 hour Pick-Your-Own hotline for updated fruit picking information at 860-349-6015.