You’ve heard of u-pick strawberries and u-pick apples.

With a different twist on the idea, a Whitefield farmer is offering u-pick hemp — but only if you make it to Sheepscot Farm this weekend and bring your own loppers. 

Farmer Ben Marcus said the u-pick idea started five years ago and has picked up steam.

“I’ve had like the same sort of core group of people that have been coming every year and they come and get a handful of plants,” said Marcus, an owner of Sheepscot General Store and Farm. “They make their own medicine. It’s great to see them every year.”

Hemp is a nonpsychoactive form of cannabis that is legal in all 50 states.

Marcus said the u-pick hemp idea started as somewhat of a joke five years ago, but his core group of pickers keep him planting one acre of the crop each year. It’s not a major money maker — he offers whole plants for $30 — but then sells the rest to Healer CBD in Brunswick.

“It helps a lot of people with different ailments, mostly pain,” he said. “Physical pain. Arthritis. We have a lot of customers that make their own tinctures and salves.”

The key to a good hemp plant is to have a high CBD content, while having a THC that’s low enough to stay under the federal limit of 0.3 percent.

On their 56-acre farm, Marcus and his family grow mostly hay and strawberries with a healthy mix of vegetables both in the field and in a greenhouse.

He said most people visit the farm to go to the store, which is part community gathering place and part market that sells everything from fresh produce to pizza to bagels to hard candy in large canisters.

Following the passage of the 2018 federal farm bill that reclassified industrial hemp as a legal commodity, a gold rush mentality hit many farmers, Marcus said. But there just wasn’t the demand for the product.

And unlike in some other states, marijuana is legal in Maine, both for those with medical conditions and adults who want to use it recreationally.

There are 17 licensed hemp growers in Maine, one of which is the University of Maine, according to state records. The state does not track processors or those who sell it, according to the Maine Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry.

At the Sheepscot Farm, there are five strains available in the u-pick rows this year including Sour Space Candy, Hawaiian Haze and Cakeberry. And although some hemp is used for fiber, the strains they grow are for home health remedies.

Marcus suggested putting it in hot water to make a tea or putting it “between your cheek and gum.”

He’s going to start harvesting next week, so Saturday and Sunday will be the last chance for visitors to get their pick.

“It’s like shopping for a Christmas tree,” he said. “You come out here with loppers and you cut one down and strap it to the roof.”