SPRINGFIELD TWP., Ohio (WKBN) – Roughly halfway through the strawberry harvest, farmers like Ricky Molnar of Molnar Farms said this year’s crop is comparable to recent seasons.

“It’s not been a real super-exceptional year, but it’s been decent. Maybe, maybe kind of being an average year for strawberries,” Molnar said.

Farms like Molnar’s say they can get four or five seasons out of the strawberry plants, but because it takes roughly a year for those plants to bear fruit once they’re put in, they rotate fields to keep up production.

Four generations of the Molnar family have operated the farm in Springfield Township. Last winter’s frigid conditions in December may have reduced the size of this summer’s harvest, but what is being picked is sweeter.

“Too much rain, you’ll lose the sweetness, you know. The water kind of washes out the sweetness, so it’s been dry, so they’ve been really, really good-tasting,” Molnar said.

Elsewhere on the farm, tomatoes, eggplant and peaches are growing, and after a slower-than-usual start, corn and soybeans are finally popping up after some much-needed rain last week.

Molnar said he’s not worrying yet.

“It’s early in the growing season, so these plants are pushing their roots down farther. Now as long as they can get some rain they need to develop the ears on the corn, to develop the pods on the soybeans, we’ll be OK,” Molnar said.

He said he and other farmers in the area could now use a little help in the form of what he calls “consistent” rainfall.

“We say an inch a week for most things, you know…. Corn and soybeans, when they develop their fruit, they, they need about the same,” Molnar said

Now, it’s up to Mother Nature.