The Strawberries Are Ripe!

Vera Hueg of Lisbon has been picking strawberries at Alden Holdridge's farm for about 10 years.

"It's all organic," she said Wednesday while taking a break from loading quart baskets with huge ripe berries. "He just waters them. The least amount of stuff on them, the better."

The berries are ready early this year, said Holdridge, "the earliest year I've ever seen. I'm not sure why."

Holdridge says his place at 1046 Colonel Ledyard Highway isn't a farm, "it's an oversized garden." In June he sells the strawberries ($3/quart PYO and $6/quart already picked) and then he closes to the public until fall, when he sells turnips, potatoes and winter squash.

At age 79, he has lived in the house on the property his whole life.

"I've always done farming but there's no money in it," Holdridge said.

He urged folks not to wait to come pick and not to let the repaving of Col. Ledyard Highway deter pickers, as the strawberry season goes by so quickly.

Hueg was wasting no time Wednesday morning, having filled on flat and half of another by 10 a.m.

"He's my gardener," she said with a laugh.