Like Pittsburghers on a spring Caribbean cruise, local strawberries have been getting fatter and fatter and redder and redder.

Finally it's time to eat them.

The cold and wet weather earlier this spring delayed the harvest of this sweet harbinger of summer -- so much so that area farms pushed their strawberry festivals back a week to this weekend. June's weather has been strawberrilicious, especially now that it's back into the 80s.

"As much as we can't stand the hot muggy weather, that's what brings the berries out," says Megan Voll, a manager at Soergel Orchards. The Franklin Park farm lets people pick their own strawberries starting from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday, when it holds it Strawberry Festival, featuring strawberry pie, strawberry shortcake, strawberry roll and other treats.

Before the recent heat wave, Ms. Voll says, there were virtually no berries, and the earliest ones ran small, but, "Things are really great now" and prices shouldn't get too big. While Soergel won't set the you-pick pound price until just before Sunday, it sells its own berries in its store for $5.29 a quart.

Either way, the farm allows you to taste, but pickers should fill their containers, not their bellies, she says, laughing. "We should weigh people when they come in and when they go out."

With their own juicy gems now ripe, they've been trying to get rid of the California berries that she says aren't nearly as tasty. But like a great vacation, Pennsylvania strawberries are fleeing: Soergel could be picked out in one good week. "It's very limited time frame."

And it's not a huge crop for the state: In 2006, according to the National Agricultural Statistics Service, 1,300 acres yielded 7.4 million pounds of strawberries. By comparison, Pennsylvania farmers planted more 15.5 times as many acres of sweet corn. The U.S. annually grows more than 2 billion pounds of strawberries, which are available year around, but just try finding any as good as the local ones right now.

If you're lucky, you may get a taste of a real rarity, such as the organically grown strawberries being harvested on former brownfields at Braddock Farm (alas, you'll only find them at a few eateries such as the East End Co-op Cafe in Point Breeze). Saturday, Farmers@Firehouse market in the Strip District is to see some more certified naturally grown strawberries from Windy Hill Farm in Cadiz, Ohio. Last Saturday, the first $25 quarts (priced at $6 a quart) were gone by 10 a.m., an hour after opening, says market manager Megan Cook. "I say, come early if you'd like to get your hands on some!"

You can find local strawberries at many area farms (several of which let you pick them), farm stores and farmers markets and supermarkets. And you can find them advertising in this section. You can also local sources at buylocalpa.org.

At Trax Farms near Finleyville, you could start picking this past Monday ($2.49 a pound vs. $4.99 a quart in the Trax store). You can feast on strawberry treats ranging from Belgian waffles to milk shakes at its Strawberry Festival from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. tomorrow, Saturday and Sunday. One of the most popular items is a strawberry slushy, says farm manager Bob Trax, who notes, "We go through almost 800 flats of strawberries in three days."

Triple B Farms in Forward holds its Strawberry Festival and Strawberry Pancake Breakfast Saturday and Sunday. With the economy struggling, owner Carolyn Beinlich expects a surge in you-pick customers, who pay $1.79 a pound vs. $5 a quart or $16 for a 4-quart basket in the Triple B market.

She says this weekend looks to be the peak of a season that may only have another week or two to go, so get picking while, as she puts it, "our picking is really good."

On Tuesday morning, a woman from Waynesburg and several children picked 20 4-quart baskets in about a hour and a half, Mrs. Beinlich reported. "She's going home to make jam."