This story was originally published by Inside Climate News and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration.
Last summer, the wild blueberry fields at Crystal Spring Farm turned red too soon.
Severe drought had gripped most of the state of Maine. At his farm near the town of Brunswick, Seth Kroeck knew the leaves were changing color prematurely because the blueberry plants were stressed. Berries shriveled before they could ripen.
The farm’s 2025 harvest was almost a total loss.
“We got about 7 percent of our expected harvest,” Kroeck, 55, said. Standing in his blueberry fields in April, he pointed out the new growth, still only a few inches high, and commented that last year’s yield was “a lot of raking with not a lot to show for it.”
