Mattituck - June is just another word for strawberries on the North Fork where the Mattituck Lions Club is gearing up for their 55th annual Strawberry Festival which is being held to coincide with Father's Day Weekend this year in keeping with a time honored Club tradition.

This year's festival will begin on Friday, June 19 when gates open at Strawberry Fields on a 14-acre field located on Route 48 east of Cox Lane owned by Southold Town. The town purchased the land several years ago and generously granted the Lions Club the use of the field in perpetuity for their fundraising event. The event has grown beyond the wildest dreams of its first organizers who raised $787 back in the 1950s when they decided to hold a Strawberry Festival patterned after an event they saw on a trip to Florida.

Last year's festival poster.

Strawberries have been a staple cash crop on the Island for years rivaling the once pervasive Long Island potatoes. There are less than a dozen major growers on the East End available today to provide the berries for the crowd gathering event. Three or four local growers send over their berries as festival organizers supplement their crops with strawberries supplied by wholesalers in other regions as the crops come in.

The berry supply is an annual touch-and-go situation for its organizers since the event begins to take shape well before the first strawberries appear around the first week in June. The extent and quality of the East End crop is not easily determined until the middle of June, just days before the annual event is scheduled to begin. More than one million strawberries will be purchased and consumed this year in keeping with past year's records. The festival has earned over $1 million for community organizations and charities in the last 10 years alone.

"We don't like to discuss funds too much," Joseph Pufahl said. Pufahl, the Vice President of the Lions Club is also, in keeping with another time honored Club tradition, the Festival Chairman. As such he is in charge of the Strawberry Festival. "They make you a vice president, put you in charge of the Festival, and if it doesn't kill you, you have a chance to be president," Pufahl joked from his office in Riverhead where he took time out from work to discuss the upcoming event. This year requests for donations from The Lions are at an all time high. "We are getting more and more requests for help from the community as well as from organizations as the economy slows," Pufahl said.

"Strawberries Fields" forever on the North Fork. Strawberries usually appear around the first week in June.

The first festivals were held on the grounds of the Mattituck School on a large green field that stretched from the Main Road to the North Road. In the early days, there was one small red and white stripped tent manned by local ladies who baked the shortcake, whipped the cream, and hulled and cut the berries.

The biggest ride at the festival in the late 1970s was a bouncing rubber mat encased in mesh. You bought your ticket and you took the ride by jumping up and down until you were dizzy. Kids never tired of it, adults shook their heads. The crafts portion of the event consisted of a few card tables, also manned by Mattituck Lions ladies who sold handmade potholders, doilies, Christmas tree ornaments and other handicrafts made in their spare time for the event.

Today, it takes an army of Lions Club volunteers to mount the three day event that draws more than 30,000 visitors. Hundreds of vendors register to sell their handcrafted items and other products from lavish well-appointed booths and display tables, while rides that thrill and amaze are set up on the fairgrounds. The Ferris Wheel lights up the sky at night, the carousel whirls, and bumper cars provide hours of enjoyment to children and adults alike.

The strawberries are hulled the night before the festival as the fruit makes it way over to the fairgrounds. More than one million berries will be made ready the night before the festival begins as volunteers gather to go to work on June 18 at 5 p.m..

A strawberry dacquery bar (non-alcoholic); strawberry pies, and other goodies are available at the festival.

Among the fixtures at the festival are Mattituck Lions Robert "Bob' Celic and Peter Kren. Celic mans the non-alcoholic strawberry dacquery bar while Kren washes the berries and mans the ticket booth. Both are joined by a brigade of Lions who gather to hull the berries with a great spirit of participation. If you believe life is uncertain and prefer to eat desert first, the strawberry shortcake is outstanding. You can buy a cup of coffee to go along with your berries and cream or get a cold soda. There are also some outstanding sausage and peppers sandwiches to be had, along with hot dogs, hamburgers, and gyros served up from the large traveling food coaches that make their way to the festival each year.

Mattituck Lions Robert "Bob' Celic and Peter Kren are a fixutre at the festival. Here Mattituck Fire Department participates in the annual St. Patrick's Day Parade in Montauk. Photo by Eileen Casey.

The Strawberry Festival has a Queen too, and the queen has a court of runner-ups that travel entourage style making appearances in parades once the event is over. High School girls from the East End are sending in the applications to compete for the title of Queen as the festival takes shapes. The winner is crowned at the Event.

"This is the first year we are charging admission," Pufahl said with a businessman's keen eye on the economy. "We don't want to put this out of the reach of the people who come out here from all over the Island to spend the day with us. We know that money is tight."

On opening day, tickets will be $2 for all comers. "That will be local Friday,' Pufahl said. Tickets will cost $5 for adults and $3 for children on Saturday and Sunday. Bracelets entitling the bearer to unlimited rides will cost $20 on Friday, increasing to $25 on Saturday and Sunday. Parking is free.

This year, a shuttle bus will run from the Marta Clara Vineyard on Sound Avenue in Aquebouge to the Mattituck Fairgrounds to lessen traffic on Route 48 as crowds make their way to the Strawberry Festival. Pufahl is also setting up a low frequency tuner to provide radio information for those en route to the event.

Among the new events to look for this year are the Pirates Cove, a special pirate inspired event for children, and the Sidor Family folk singers who will be performing. Funds from the event are given to more than 20 community organizations. Strawberries and cream are being put to good use in Mattituck where public service, community spirit and love of a good desert just can't be beat.