FARMINGTON — Old South First Congregational Church will serve strawberry shortcake from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Tuesday, July 4, at the Pierce House, 208 Main St. It’s been a tradition since the church celebrated its 100-year anniversary in 2005, according to a news release from the church’s fundraising committee.

Most years volunteers from Old South pick the berries fresh from David and Verna Pike’s farm on the Whittier Road. Historically, volunteer pickers gather in the morning and harvest more than 100 pounds of the berries. Boxes of picked berries are then transported to the Old South kitchen, where another group of at least six volunteers wash, hull and mash the strawberries adding just the right amount of sugar, according to the release.

Old South Church pickers, Regina Longyear and Gretchen Legler, display the locally grown Pike's Farm strawberries to be served up on fresh baked biscuits and whipped cream from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Tuesday, July 4, on the Pierce House Lawn on Main Street in Farmington by the Old South Congregational Church. Contributed photo

Each year the Pikes have supported the annual event by donating a generous portion of the berries.

Early on the morning of the July 4, at least 300 biscuits are baked in the church’s kitchen. Once the biscuits are baked, then all the ingredients and supplies are then taken to the Pierce House and the serving area is set up under a tent on the Pierce House front lawn.

Volunteers staff the assembly line, making each shortcake as perfect as possible with a fresh baked biscuit, a generous scoop of Pikes’ locally grown fresh strawberries and a generous squirt of whipped cream, according to the release.

Serving begins at 10:30 a.m. and goes until 12:30 p.m., or until the berries, or biscuits, run out.

The cost is $4 each. Proceeds from the sale of the strawberries will benefit community service and outreach through improved handicapped accessibility to the Old South Church’s Newman Wing.

For more information, call 778-0424.

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