MANITOWOC, CO (WTAQ-WLUK) – A summertime staple in Northeast Wisconsin is almost ready.
While not quite red and juicy right now — area farms say they’re looking forward to a healthy strawberry crop this season.
“The strawberry crop that’s laying out there is looking really good,” said Deanna Greiling with Greiling Gardens Strawberries in Manitowoc County.
After a storm struck Greiling Gardens outside of Denmark last week, the farm was concerned about small hail damaging the berries.
“Pea-sized hail, and there wasn’t no wind with it,” said Neil Greiling.
Neil Greiling, 88, has been farming since he was 13-years-old.
He and his daughter Deanna say thankfully, the berries didn’t sustain any damage.
“This last round it was a bit much because it came in hard and heavy. But the strawberries are early in their development,” said Deanna Greiling. “They’re not far enough along for that kind of rain to damage them.”
Greiling Gardens believes picking could happen sometime in the next week to 10 days.
While it seemed that much of Northeast Wisconsin couldn’t escape the rain last month — it was overall a positive for strawberries.
At Porter’s Patch in Shawano County, the rounds of rain in the month of May were a blessing.
They anticipate picking strawberries will happen on their farm between June 10th to 15th.
“We were very dry over the winter. We hardly had any snowfall. So it was kind of scary but the rains came and filled everything back up. And we’ve been getting timely rains now. Strawberries and all of these berries really like a lot of water when they’re forming that berry,” said Troy Porter with Porter’s Patch.
The rainy days have also helped out other berries like blueberries and raspberries, which also appear to have an earlier harvest time this year.
The biggest concern with more rain is for other crops that have yet to be planted.
“You want to have the ground at the right consistency to seed or to transplant,” said Neil Greiling. “And if it’s raining, you miss that date on the other ends in the fall.”
With rainfall in the forecast for this week, farmers are hopeful their strawberry crop will withstand what comes their way.
Both farms encourage those looking forward to picking strawberries to check their websites and social media to see when picking will officially begin.
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