Paul Clegg, 61, who owns Syston Park Farm in Grantham, Lincolnshire, said the unpredictable weather in recent years had forced him to grow strawberries via a less traditional route, using tabletops.
While tabletop strawberries are a “big investment”, he said growing crop this way meant they were less dependent on the weather as they can be irrigated.
Clegg said his soil-grown berries had suffered this year but his tabletop crop were “keeping me going”.
He said they were looking “fantastic”. He added: “They’re growing really, really well and we should get a really good crop out of those, just a bit later in July.”
The pick-your-own strawberry season usually starts in between the last week of May and the first week of June.
Wilson said he had high hopes for this season.
“We’ve got about 30 people in the field now with raincoats on. But they’re still turning up,” he said.
It is a tradition for some people to turn up on the first day of the season, no matter the weather, Wilson said.
“They’ve been coming for years and it’s nice to see them returning each year.”
