KENNEBEC JOURNAL • July 5, 2022
Leane Reed’s favorite part about her berry farm is “eating the berries.” It seems like a simple answer for someone that runs a farm and has done so with her husband, Richard, for nearly 20 years. But running a raspberry farm is anything but simple — it can be very labor intensive, Reed said. Leane, 75, and Richard Reed, 76, the namesakes for R&L Berry Farm in Readfield, started their U-pick raspberry season two weeks ago, which was nearly three weeks ahead of schedule. “When the heat hits, the heat and the rain, oh my word, it brings them out like crazy,” Leane Reed said. In a season with regular weather [climate], the raspberries would be due shortly after the Fourth of July.