The strawberry season is in full swing in Central Virginia. Although there aren’t as many pickers as last year, when bored citizens were looking for safe ways to have fun during the pandemic, growers still say they are happy with the turnout.
Lowell Yoder, partner at Yoders’ Farm in Rustburg, said so far it’s been a great strawberry season and a lot of that has to do with the weather. “The rains have been timed about right and we’ve had just a lot of really pretty days and that always makes strawberry farmers smile,” he said.
He told newsadvance.com the crop and quality of the strawberries at his farm are great this year, and although the timing of the crop may be on the late side, that’s pretty normal for the region.
Strawberry season usually begins in late April or early May and runs until the first week of June. The last few weekends were cool so the berries haven’t been ripening as quickly, Yoder said. The farm has had to close early a few times because the patch gets picked out and there aren’t enough strawberries for everyone.
Yoder said last May there was more uncertainty with the COVID-19 pandemic and the farm had to implement new safety measures, but now he describes it as the “new normal.”