FARMINGTON – The cedar waxwings are feasting on the crop of strawberries at Pike’s Pick Your Own strawberries, but David Pike hopes people will too when he opens the fields to customers Friday, if the weather is good.

Pike’s strawberries are a little bit earlier than others in the area, and the crop looks abundant, he said Thursday. The early and midseason varieties are coming in at the same time.

“It looks like it’s going to be a short, fast season but there will be no season without some sun,” he added as it started to sprinkle again.

Pike, who measures rainfall with his own gauge, says there have been 4 inches of rain in the area this past week. The rain has delayed planting of next year’s crop, he said, but hasn’t hurt strawberries on the plants now.

It has made harvesting difficult for those who started picking Monday.

Car after car pulled up to the small stand beside Subway on Routes 2 and 4 Thursday for that first taste of fresh strawberries. Ally West, a June graduate of Mt. Blue High School, has tended the fruit and vegetable stand for the past six or seven years. She started during her middle school summers, she said, as she and Pike’s son, Darryl, unloaded quarts of strawberries for customers.

“The plants are loaded,” Darryl added, predicting the crop’s availability over the next three weeks would be good. The crop of peas is also looking good and should be ready in about a week and definitely ready for July 4, he added.

While picking your own strawberries is traditional for some, gas prices appear to be the cause of a drop-off of Sunday sales, at least for a nursery in Massachusetts, David said after speaking with the nursery owner. During the week, business is fine, but people seem to be staying home on Sundays there, he added.

Pike’s is not open Sundays, but he plans to make the pick-your-own-crop more readily available this year. His usual morning hours, 7 a.m. to noon, will be extended to 4 to 8 p.m. weekdays, he added.

As much as half of his two-acre crop has been lost because people haven’t come to pick their own, he said. He hopes the evening hours will give more people a chance, he said.