ALBANY TOWNSHIP – Franklin Barton has about eight and a half or nine acres of his former dairy farm in Albany Township planted in strawberries. The problems are different each year, he says, “I’m always learning.” He plans to put in about two acres of new plants each year.

It’s a family operation, he said. “I couldn’t do it alone.” His wife, Margaret, is indispensable and his brother helps with hand hoeing. They’ve just finished hoeing the two acres of new plants, Miras and Honeoyes, for the second time, about 11,000 plants, he said. “If it weren’t for him, I couldn’t do it.” Hoeing all those rows alone would seem too endless, Barton said.

When it’s finally time to pick those ripe berries, the work is intensive. Picking season lasts about three weeks and begins just about the time their grandchildren are out of school. For that three weeks, he said, the grandchildren live with their grandparents and help with the operation. One granddaughter runs the stand, he said. There are berries to be picked to stock the stand for those who don’t want to pick their own. And there are always errands to be run.

The Bartons sell most of their berries through their U-Pick operation. The only drawback to that, Barton said, is that people don’t necessarily come when the berries are ripe, and berries don’t wait. They ripen fast when it is hot and of course, that’s just when people are more reluctant to get out in the fields. Starting Sunday, the Bartons have been staying open seven days a week from 7 a.m. to noon and again from 5 p.m. until 8.

Last year, they lost a lot of beautiful berries during a long, hot spell. It was getting toward the end of the season, the berries were dead ripe, but people just weren’t coming out to pick in the heat, he said.

“Berries, when they’re ripe, they got to be picked.” So they came up with an idea. They closed down completely for two days and put a message on the answering machine that Sunday would be the last day.

“Fair” enough

“That last day was like Fryeburg Fair,” he said, with big crowds the whole time they were open.

Word-of-mouth seems to be the best way to bring people to his fields, Barton said. He also intends to do more advertising this year, including putting notices in local stores. Bartons’ pick-your-own strawberries (207-824-2834) also is listed on the Web under the farm stands listed on www.mainefoodand farms.com. It’s part of the state’s “Get real, get Maine” promotion of local food growers.

Still, he said, there’s no way to get people out to pick berries when it’s too hot or it’s rainy. People who aren’t farmers often don’t understand that there’s a short span of time when berries need to be picked. He seemed philosophical about it, though, saying he loses some every year for one reason or another. That’s just one of the risks of farming.

Fresh from the field

Barton was a little apologetic about the weeds in his fields, but explained that he uses as little spray as possible so kids can eat berries right from the field when they’re warm and juicy from the sun. “I want people to be able to eat while they pick,” he said, “so I don’t put anything on them that would be harmful.”

Berries that will be ready for harvest first are the Honeoye and Sable, the new variety he’s experimenting with that’s supposed to be earlier than Honeoye and retains some of the wild strawberry flavor, Barton said. Another new variety is Brunswick, a little later than Honeoye, with a nice meaty texture, and red all the way through. Mira comes on about a week later than Honeoye, he said, and the latest variety he’s experimenting with is Massabi. Those have a very heavy set so should guarantee berries for at least three weeks.

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