This spring was cold in Washington County, and the wild blueberries stayed green for longer than they typically do.
As the fruits in the low-lying bushes finally turned blue in late July, Cherryfield-based grower Ben Perrin saw bare patches in the roughly 100 acres of fields he harvests, signs of the drought that wiped out almost his entire crop last summer.
“They just shriveled up and they were gone,” he said of last year.
But things are looking “awfully good” for him at Burke Hill Farm this year, especially in light of that drought. Perrin started harvesting July 25 and will continue for about 30 days. He doesn’t expect a bumper crop, and has noticed a pattern of fewer berries only at the tops of the plants, but feels things could have been much worse.
A change in the weather could still create a bad turn as the Down East harvest continues this month. Maine farmers provide almost all of the country’s domestic supply of wild blueberries, which play a big role in the region’s economy.
Still, numerous growers said things are looking better on the barrens than they did last year. They’re hoping the weather cooperates while still trying to recover from 2025 — and in some cases, reconsider how they operate amid years of economic and climate headwinds.
In 2025, wet weather during spring pollination and a rapid-onset drought during the harvest caused major losses for growers. Because wild blueberries are harvested on two-year cycles, droughts can also reduce yields in following years.
The state’s blueberry industry, which is largely based in Washington County but extends through the midcoast, can produce more than 100 million pounds of berries when the weather’s right. Last year’s count was just north of 54 million pounds.
The Maine Wild Blueberry Commission, an industry group, has estimated the cost of production doubled in 2025 and that the weather caused $28 million in economic losses.
With costs already rising and market competition increasing from cultivated blueberries, businesses were less able to absorb that hit, said Eric Venturini, executive director of the commission.
A full overview of the 2026 harvest is months away, when tax data becomes available in January, according to Venturini. What growers are observing now is anecdotal.
But so far, it’s looking like a middle-of-the-road start — though things could change any day, he said, such as hot nights and dry weather that could cause “horrible” effects in the field.
The market has been more favorable to growers because of the smaller supply from Maine and Canada to meet consumer demand.
Even if the harvest is good and the market stays strong, challenges remain and have led some to cut back their acreage in recent years. The amount of actively managed blueberry land has dropped by 20% in five years, according to the commission.
Production costs have continued rising, with various challenges increasingly squeezing growers across the last five years, Venturini said. Those include basic costs to keep fields producing, such as fuel, equipment, labor and renting honeybees to pollinate.
Earlier this year, the Wild Blueberry Commission started a $1.3 million grant program for growers from its own funds, and is devoting much of its energy to seeking more outside emergency support, according to Venturini.
About $2.2 million is available to some growers through the USDA’s specialty crop assistance program, which is focused on ongoing economic challenges rather than the fallout of last year’s weather, he said.
The commission is trying to get more funds through Congress, specifically aiming for disaster relief without the eligibility restrictions that limited larger growers from applying for specialty crop funds, he said. It’s also pushed for longer-term funding solutions to manage the effects of drought, such as irrigation and water retention infrastructure.
Lisa Hanscom, who runs Welch Family Farm in Roque Bluffs, lost 28 of 32 acres last year and had little to send to the processor as berries shriveled up.
Things are looking “halfway decent” for now, she said Monday, though it’s hard to judge what the crop could have been if more rain fell last year. She worried because the county was still classified as in drought until recently, and summer rains sometimes skip her fields on the coast. But rainfall Monday helped the berries ripen and plump up.
“From other growers I’ve talked to, they seemed to feel like they’ve got some blueberries going,” she said.
Hanscom, who hires harvest labor locally, has another annual problem getting enough consistent help to hand rake and winnow the berries, especially for the fruit she grows on 25 acres reserved to send to Milbridge-based processor Wyman’s. The rest are sold for the fresh pack market.
Ideally, cool weather will continue without getting so hot that the fields dry up, she said. Some overnight rain that dries out in the morning so workers can rake also would help.
Despite a “devastating” loss of income last year, the Hanscoms decided to push ahead and plan for the future, she said. They’ve put more work and money into field management to try to increase yields and readjusted some sales strategies, both of which seem to be paying off.
They figured they might as well change it all up and see what they could do, she said.
A major federal grant that had allowed the farm to sell to food pantries has also been cut, so the Hanscoms are vending more fresh berries at farmers markets.
Their adjustments feel like decisions about where to focus energy to get the biggest buck for the berries while ideally reducing labor needs, Hanscom said.
Other growers have been calling to ask about the family’s u-pick operation and brainstorm other ideas, Hanscom said. To her, it seems like after such a devastating year, some may be rethinking their business models, no longer able to depend primarily on raking and selling to processors.
If it wasn’t the drought, they noted, it would likely be something else.
“It’s blueberrying,” Hanscom’s father, Wayne, said in the background Monday as she spoke to a reporter by phone. “Every year’s different.”
Perrin, from Cherryfield, weighed in with a similar sentiment in explaining that he hasn’t changed much about his business in reaction to rising costs and recent weather.
“It’s farming,” he said. “You just run with it.”
