Joel Bamford collects strawberries as Cano Rodriguez, left, picks at Maxwell’s Farm fields in June 2022. Derek Davis/Portland Press Herald, file

CAPE ELIZABETH — Jordan’s Farm will take over the pick-your-own strawberry fields formerly tended by Maxwell’s Farm on Bowery Beach Road.

Lois and Bill Bamford announced last July that the 2024 fruit-fly damaged season would be their last after growing strawberries for 51 years.

The Jordans posted on social media this week that they will not only offer pick-your-own strawberries in their fields on Wells Road but also in the Bowery Beach Road fields previously tended by the Bamfords.

“Fingers crossed it will be a great season,” Penny Jordan, a farm co-owner and town councilor, said Wednesday.

Jordan’s Farm has taken over Maxwell’s lease on an 18-acre parcel off Route 77 that’s owned by the Sprague Corp., Jordan said. The Bamfords also previously farmed 24 acres on Two Lights Road that’s owned by Lois (Maxwell) Bamford.

“Maxwell’s built a legacy of strawberry picking in Cape Elizabeth and people really love it,” Jordan said. “We saw this as a way to carry on that legacy and to make sure farmland stays farmland.”

The added acreage will allow Jordan’s Farm to better manage crop rotation for the various vegetables and fruits that it grows on over 120 acres, she said.

It also will allow the farm to further develop its retail and wholesale product line, which includes frozen strawberries, strawberry jam, strawberry vinaigrette, marinara sauce and popcorn sold at the farm store and Barber Bros. in South Portland. The goal is to make Jordan’s Farm products available at stores across Maine.

In the meantime, the Jordans are tending the strawberry plants through the offseason. A posted video shows Phil Jordan and an employee using a bale shredder to apply a layer of straw across the plants.

“This will keep them nice and WARM throughout the winter, and will be removed in the spring when the weather warms and the plants begin growing again,” the post says.

The berries should be ripe for picking in mid- to late June.