Strawberry season in full swing at York, Lancaster, Chester farms

Ginger Black made her first visit of the season Friday to Bush-N-Vine near York, where she loaded up on four gallons of strawberries. She plans strawberry shortcake, strawberry preserves, strawberry pie.

Black and other strawberry enthusiasts have been able to enjoy the spring treats earlier than usual, thanks to a warm winter that brought strawberries into season by mid-April.

“Everything’s coming in earlier this year, with the milder temps that we had in March,” said Sam Hall, son of Bush-N-Vine owner Bob Hall.

The season for pick-your-own strawberries, an annual rite of spring for many families, is in full swing at Bush-N-Vine and other York, Chester and Lancaster county produce farms.

Bush-N-Vine is unique among berry growers in that has used growing techniques to extend the typical six- to eight-week strawberry season to 36 or 38 weeks, Hall said.

“Most people are done with strawberries by the middle of June, and we try to carry them over to the Fourth of July,” he said.

Bush-N-Vine also has a smaller fall strawberry crop, from mid-October to January.

The farm grows some berries in covered tunnels, Hall said, and they grow eight acres of berries in the spring and again in the fall. The farm also plants some berries on top of plastic, which helps them mature earlier.

Hall and several other local growers said this year’s spring berry crop is a sweet, juicy fruit because of nearly ideal growing conditions.

“This has been our best season in quite a few years,” said Jene Goddard, manager of Springs Farm in Fort Mill. “We’ve had really good weather, and that means really good, really big, sweet strawberries.”

The pick-your-own season at Springs Farm usually runs until June.

“When it starts to get hot at night, that’s when the berries stop production,” Goddard said. “As long as we’ve got cool nights, the berries will keep producing.”

Terry Graham, owner of The Ivy Place in the Van Wyck community of Lancaster County, picked his first berries March 30 – the earliest in his four years in business. He said that’s two to three weeks earlier than typical.

Mark Kulpinski, owner of Kylie’s Strawberry Patch in the Lesslie community, said this is his first year in business, though he has 10 years of experience growing berries.

Kulpinski, who named the business for his 3-year-old granddaughter, said his berries started coming in the first week of April, and they don’t usually ripen until around April 20.

“It’s great quality, and everybody is really satisfied,” he said.

This story was originally published May 3, 2016 at 3:18 PM with the headline "Strawberry season in full swing at York, Lancaster, Chester farms."