Pick-your-own and farm market strawberries are ripe and ready!

Consumers in search of local strawberries can use the Virginia Grown farm directory at virginiagrown.com. Numerous strawberry festivals are planned for this spring, and you can get details at the Virginia is for Lovers site at virginia.org.

“We have more strawberries than we can pick,” said Jen Flory, business manager at Westmoreland Berry Farm in Westmoreland County. “The weather had a huge impact. We put row covers on the fruit to protect against frost, but during the day we had higher temperatures so it created a greenhouse effect, and the berries came in sooner.”

In Pittsylvania County, “we opened earlier than normal this year; very seldom do we open before the fifth or sixth of May,” said Gloria Motley of Motley’s Strawberry Farm.

Tyler Wegmeyer, owner of Wegmeyer Farms in Loudoun County, said strawberry growers “live and die by the weather at both ends of the spectrum. The thing about strawberries is we have to worry about the weather when we grow them, and then we have to hope for sunny days on the weekends (for pick-your-own customers) to pick them.”

Virginia strawberries are divine atop shortcake or simmered into homemade jam. But if you want to make a meal of them, try this Strawberry Pork Loin from Chef John Maxwell on Real Virginia, Virginia Farm Bureau’s weekly television program. You can find the full recipe here.