GREENWOOD — Saturday’s Strawberry Festival at the Locke Mills Union Church on Route 26 attracted more than 300 people in about four hours.

They came for Belgian waffles topped with strawberries and whipped cream, pies, strawberry shortcake, homemade biscuits, muffins and baked goods.

“We had a lot of people in and it’s just about a sellout,” Beverly Melville of Greenwood said.

By 11 a.m., they had 30 to 40 waffles left and about 20 biscuits, although more people were stopping in for what they called brunch.

Melville and helpers made 210 Belgian waffles in one day to start with, along with homemade white and chocolate doughnuts. Several people made 70 to 75 pies to sell at $10 each, most of which were strawberry rhubarb.

“People love strawberry rhubarb,” Beverly Melville said.

Her husband, Dick, said they got 334 quarts of strawberries from Stevenson’s Strawberries in Wayne and by 11:05 a.m., only four quarts remained — until Dick Melville snapped them up.

Beverly Melville said they weren’t sure they’d get any strawberries this year because the crop started growing slowly.

“We weren’t sure if we’d get any, but they came through,” she said of Stevenson’s.

“They always save some for us,” Dick Melville said.

Volunteer Lonny Schneider of Greenwood said the mashing of strawberries for the waffles “went quickly.”

She said she found three different antique strawberry mashers in three different states over the winter and they used those rather than newer ones, which mashed the pulp into juice.

“We had lots of good, willing workers today,” Beverly Melville said. “We had four or five in the kitchen, two selling the baked goods, three in the dining room, a cashier, a lady who takes the orders and four men outside selling quarts of strawberries. The berries went fast.”

She said the festival is a fundraiser for the church.

“It’s for special projects and needs,” Beverly Melville said. “That’s what pays our oil bill and gets us through the year.”

The festival is held from 7:30 a.m. until they run out of everything, she said. But on Saturday, customers arrived early and the volunteer workers were all there, so they opened 10 minutes early.

She said they call it a festival, because “it’s a festive time, I guess. We celebrate summer and strawberries. It’s amazing how many families get together and come. Of course, a lot of them are summer folk up here staying in their cottages.”

At about 11:20 a.m., Anne Richter of Twitchell Pond in Greenwood and artist Michelle Stuckey of Portland arrived for “brunch.” Stuckey’s Mainescapes art exhibit titled “From the Heart and Hands,” opened on Friday at Frost Hill Farm in Norway and runs through July 26. Richter said she brought Stuckey to experience the Strawberry Festival.

“I’ve been coming up here for 70 years,” Richter said, grinning while enjoying a forkful of strawberry-rhubarb pie.

Stuckey also sported a big grin, after tasting her first piece of Belgian waffle, strawberries and whipped cream.

“Very yummy,” she said. “It’s the perfect summer treat, and it’s breakfast or brunch.”

tkarkos@sunjournal.com