Start of Schools Delayed by Huge Blueberry Crop

MACHIAS, Me. — Two school districts have put off the opening of classes for a week so students and teachers can help bring in perhaps the area’s largest-ever harvest of wild blueberries.

The school boards in Machias and Cherryfield have agreed to put off the start of the school year from this week until Monday.

Hundreds of local people, including youngsters and teachers, take part in the harvest every year. But so many blueberries are expected to be harvested from this year’s bumper crop that picking is to continue well into September, unless it is cut short by frost, officials said.