There’s nothing that signals the beginning of summer like the strawberry, that plump, red fruit that emerges, ready for picking, usually within a week before or after the summer solstice.

Sliced over a bowl of morning cereal, a split biscuit and topped off with whipped cream for shortcake, or crushed with sugar and cooked for jam, strawberries are one of nature’s summer gifts.

At Lavigne’s Strawberry Farm on Whicher’s Mills Road in Sanford, the Lavigne family ”“ Patrick Lavigne, his wife Denise and his brother Albert Lavigne ”“ opened the 12 acres of fields for picking June 15.

This week’s heat, combined with a warm winter and spring, played havoc with their crop, however, so for Lavigne’s, Sunday will be the last day for the U-Pick operation. They were closed Friday and planned to close Saturday so berries can ripen. They plan to open at 6 a.m. Sunday.

As folks young and old bent to the task of picking earlier this week, Patrick and Albert Lavigne reflected a bit on this year’s crop, and what it takes to produce it.

You need sunshine, of course, to ripen the fruit, water to make the plants grow, fertilizer to give them a boost, and straw to cover the berry plants in the winter and to keep the weeds down. Once the berries come in, during the spring and summer, they need to be kept clean.

Albert Lavigne, surveying the fields in the sunshine earlier this week, was expecting a crew of helpers later in the day, because there was straw to be cut.

“We’re baling 700 bales tonight,” he said.

Their crop of Cavendish berries is ripe and sweet this year, though Mother Nature provided a few unwelcome challenges including a burst of unusually warm weather in the spring, followed by frost.

“We had to water the plants in the spring to keep the blossoms from freezing,” said Patrick.

Then the intense heat and humidity earlier this week damaged some berries.

Patrick and Albert Lavigne are marking 35 years in the U-Pick strawberry business, starting the business with two others ”“ Aldas Carpentier and another brother, Fred Lavigne, both of whom have since passed away. Over the years, they’ve had assistance from others, like Lee Theriault, who previously managed the operation for a time.

At Spiller Farm, on Branch Road in Wells, where generations of the Spiller family have been farming since 1894, Bill and Anna Spiller oversee a U-Pick operation that includes strawberries, along with other fruits and vegetables throughout the season, winding down with pumpkins in the fall. The couple were out working on the farm Friday and couldn’t be reached for comment, but their website indicates they plan to be open for strawberry picking at 8 a.m. Saturday.

Back at Lavigne’s earlier this week, three generations of one family had red-stained fingers from the juicy, summer fruit. Sharon Remick and her daughter, Karen Chase, were picking, while Karen’s 21-month-old daughter, Cheyenne Chase, amused herself by transferring berries from one box to another. They were looking forward to shortcake, and Remick said she planned to freeze some berries for strawberry bread in the winter.

Albert Lavigne looked over the rows of green plants bearing the sweet, red fruit and spoke about the farm, and the work involved. With farming, he said, you just “keep plugging.”

“You’ve got to like it or you wouldn’t do it,” he said.

— Senior Staff Writer Tammy Wells can be contacted at 324-4444 (local call in Sanford) or 282-1535, Ext. 327 or twells@journaltribune.com.