DURHAM, N.S. — Up and over a gentle hill not far from where people had parked their cars at least 25 people could be seen stooped or seated in between green rows of strawberry plants.
"I think we ate about ten," said Willem Bigney who was leaving with his sister Ruby, each holding a small carton filled with strawberries. "We got quite a few today!"
Not everyone in the fields at MacLean's Strawberries was a visitor. Commerical pickers were busily filling up trays for sale later, or purposelfully walking through the lanes of soft matted hay to pick up trays that were already filled.
Among them were veteran picker Luke MacLean and new-comer Ian Stewart.
"I can probably get through 40 boxes in a day," said MacLean who said that he's been picking with the work crews at MacLean's Strawberries since he was seven.
You could smell strawberries before even getting to the patch, and by 11:30 a.m. every box, tray and carton of pre-picked berries was sold out.
Carolyn Dwyer of Lyon's Brook didn't seem to mind picking them herself.
"I just decided to pick my own," said Dwyer who was picking in a quieter part of the field. "I haven't done this for years."