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Despite challenging weather, Columbia County farm opens for strawberry season

This month's late-season freeze damaged a lot of farmer's crops, including many strawberries.

COLUMBIA COUNTY, Pa. — Big, juicy strawberries line the fields at Rohrbach's Farm near Catawissa. This was the first day for pick-your-own berries, and Lucy Turner of Danville got quite a few.

"I actually almost passed by because I thought they weren't open because there are usually cars lined up."

Turner says it was her mom's tradition to come here.

"When we were younger, she used to pick wild strawberries the size of your pinky nail, buckets of them, so this is like heaven to her because they're like this," Turner laughed.

The freeze earlier this month damaged a lot of strawberry patches throughout our area. Some farms are not opening their patches to the public this season.

Rohrbach's Farm is opening with limited hours.

"We're all in the same boat. We're definitely seeing some limitations, but we want to do our best to get as much to the public as we can," said owner Denise Bosworth.

Bosworth says Rohrbach's Farm had minimal damage during this month's freeze. She also says this will be a short strawberry season because of cooler weather in general.

"The strawberries are growing, but they're not turning red. Now, all of a sudden, we're switching to this hot, sunny weather, so everything is going to ripen fast and together at the same time, more so than over the course of time, which is traditionally what happens with strawberries."

Rohrbach's Farm has a hotline to update people on its pick-your-own strawberries at 570-543-2211.

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