MECHANIC FALLS, Maine — Farmers throughout much of Maine have dealt with quite a cold and rainy June so far, putting some summer crops in jeopardy.
Mike Goss, who runs Goss Berry Farm alongside his father in Mechanic Falls, had to cancel all but two of the farm's "you pick" days this month due to consistent rain forming mold on some of his strawberries.
"I just checked the weather station yesterday. We've had 12 days of measurable rainfall, at our weather station, out of the last 15," he said. "That's not good."
Goss explained that he plants his strawberries in elevated and under plastic - a method he said is three times more expensive than usual, but yields ripe berries earlier than the other farms in town; making Goss farm an early-season destination for people picking their own carton.
To counter the lost strawberries, Goss diversified the crops he grows, adding multiple species like raspberries, and blueberries, which the rain hit at an opportune time for its growth, plumping up Maine's iconic fruit instead of harming it.
David Handley, the vegetable and small fruit specialist at the UMaine cooperative extension, said this is a positive trend that didn't exist in the 1960s and 70s.
"Diversity for a small farmer is, basically, your insurance policy," Handley said. "Because, if one crop fails for one reason or another, be it weather or be it the economy, you have something else to back you up."
Handley added that as climate change creates more volatile weather conditions, irrigation systems are now a must for many farms, when they were much less common in Maine in decades past.