FARMERS' markets around the state are now ablaze in color: beefsteak tomatoes, orange carrots, organic greens, blueberries and yellow onions, corn and squash.

Heading into the final weeks of August, farmers are reporting a bumper crop thanks to a strong early growing season, hard work and a little luck.

"For some farmers it was a boom because we had rain every week," said Charlie Reid, an organic farmer from Nottingham and president of the Manchester Farmers' Market. "Some people had a great season, but not everybody."

Harry Lewis of Lewis Farm in Concord said the heat at the height of summer accelerated some of the harvest. "Even some of the pumpkins have turned color already," he said. "Now that it has warmed up, everything's going to come at once."

Customers browse the fruit selection at the Apple Hill Farm stand at the Manchester Farmers’ Market. (DAVID LANE)

Gordon Barker of Barker's Farm in Stratham said the healthy crop report is thanks to timely weather patterns. "We've gotten the rain when we've really desperately needed it," he said during a quick break at the Portsmouth Farmers' Market on Saturday.

The cycle of rain and sun earlier in the year also created the best strawberry season in 15 or 20 years for some farmers, said Stephen H. Taylor, commissioner of the state Department of Agriculture, Markets and Food.

Each crop has its story and challenges. For strawberries, farms in the western part of the state fared well because snow cover protected them from cold. Reid said some Seacoast farms saw their strawberry vines subjected to late frost, then an extreme heat that can melt a berry right off the vine.

Emery Farm on Route 4 in Durham saw more than 50 percent of its strawberry crop wiped out due to rains last fall and this spring, the family farm reports on its Web site. But the farm, established in 1655, has plenty of other crops, including blueberries, corn and other fresh vegetables.

Lewis, the Concord farmer, said yellow zucchini, tomatoes, winter squash and greens are part of a booming crop report.

Reid, whose Stone Wall Farm also sells its organic produce locally in Nottingham and at the Portsmouth Farmers' Market, said it is a good year for peppers, eggplant, onions, squash and garlic "as big as your fist." Apples and late-season corn are also looking good, he said.

"Farmers diversify," he said. "Every year without fail some crops grow good, some don't grow so good."

The state's annual sales of agricultural products are near $750 million, and that is just part of the industry's economic impact, according to the University of New Hampshire Cooperative Extension. The state lists about 60 farmers' markets, community events that sell everything from honey to cucumbers.

The season began on a better note than 2006, with the Mother's Day flood wiping out some soils. Matt McQuesten of McQuesten Farm in Litchfield, which sustained field flooding during the 2006 storm, said the farm could use a little rain now. While tomatoes and corn are among those crops coming in fine, McQuesten said the next two to four weeks will be the farm's busiest time as fall crops arrive.

"It's kind of a double whammy," he said of the annual harvest his family has welcomed since the middle of the 18th century.