Amanda Mathieu has spent the past week or so lugging 30-gallon buckets of water to her strawberry field in an attempt to save some of this year’s crop.
“The berries are literally cooking in the field, Mathieu said Tuesday afternoon from her Mathieu Berry Farm in Grand Isle. “We have a 300-gallon rain barrel [in the fields] that is full after the winter and we never usually go through it, but this year we emptied it.”
Mathieu is not alone.
The northern tier of Aroostook County is currently experiencing abnormally dry conditions, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s online drought monitor, a term used to describe areas showing dryness but not yet in drought.
“We are watching the situation and hoping for rain,” said John Bott, spokesman for the Maine Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry. “We are hoping going forward the things will improve.”
To read the rest of “Hot weather is baking Aroostook County crops,” an article by contributing Bangor Daily News staff writer Julia Bayly, please follow this link to the BDN online.
