LONDONDERRY — Families had sticky hands and faces in search of ripe, sweet strawberries for the picking on Friday as Sunnycrest Farm opened its pick-your-own season last week.
The 81-year-old family-owned farm, at 59 High Range Road, is one of many in the Merrimack Valley and southern New Hampshire which begins its pick-your-own season with strawberries and concludes it with pick-your-own apples in the fall.
Kelly Hicks, who owns Sunnycrest Farm with her husband, Dan Hicks, said the season is off to a promising start as beautiful warm weather has fostered a plentiful crop for 2024.
“Last year was rough for the crops,” Hicks said. “But the weather has been good this year and we are ready to start the season.”
For many pick-your-own farms, an arctic freeze and late frost damaged or destroyed many crops for the 2023 season. Rain and flooding conditions additionally made for an unpredictable growing and picking season last year.
Hicks said it was no different for Sunnycrest Farm which did not have any cherries or peaches available for picking in 2023 because of the weather.
But she said she loves seeing the pick-your-own season kick off with young children and their parents coming back to the farm.
It’s all about families enjoying themselves in the fields, Hick said, and seeing those strawberry-soaked cheeks come into the farm stand after a morning’s pick.
Children redirected the strawberries freshly picked away from their quart containers and into their mouths with juice dripping down their faces and coloring their shirts red throughout the morning.
There’s some strategy involved though when picking strawberries.
For Eleanor Park of Derry and her kids Samantha and Oliver Park, the goal was to find strawberries on the verge of ripeness with a tint of white near the stem. They’ll keep longer in the refrigerator,
The three were out early looking for the best strawberries in one of the three strawberry fields open.
Park helped her children find strawberries not quite ripe so they’ll last longer. She told them the key was lifting up the leaves to uncover the hidden fruit in the middle of the patch.
Samantha and Oliver took her lead and piled up their bounty. Oliver picked the best-of-the-best fruit effortlessly.
In another field, Kate Hammel of Derry took her two boys, Benjamin and Jack Hammel, for a day of picking. But she said more strawberries ended up in Jack’s belly than what made it in his quart container to take home.
Strawberry juice dripped down the two boys’ chins and hands. Jack Hammel looked for bigger strawberries, but liked the smaller ones as well.
Hammel said her family enjoys the pick-your-own activity and they come back to Sunnycrest Farm year after year. They were joined by family friend Piper Caryl and her daughter, Stephanie Sigrid, of Manchester.
The kids examined their bounty together, sitting between the rows of strawberries and sharing which ones they thought were perfect.
Sigrid held a plump, ruby strawberry in her red-stained hand and said this is the type her young friends should be on the lookout to pluck.
Kate Hammel said the kids had the best eye to burrow through the bushes being lower to the ground.
“They are able to pick them faster than we are able to get down,” she said with a laugh.