The strawberry scent from the basement of St. Anthony's Church in Mattapoisett was noticeable and powerful.

The Mattapoisett Lion's Club spent all Thursday afternoon cutting strawberries, by hand, for the homemade strawberry shortcakes they sell every year at Harbor Days. Harbor Days is an annual July celebration of Mattapoisett, its harbor and its heritage that is put on by the Lion's Club.

"It's about 130 pounds, something like that," said Joe Rego, past president of the Mattapoisett Lion's Club.

"He's the food guru," shouted Helene Rose, another past president, cutting endless pounds upon pounds of strawberries.

"Don't listen to her, I'm just the guy who orders the food," said Rego.

"We sell a phenomenal amount of strawberry shortcakes," said Immediate past king lion Don Bamberger, who possesses chairmanship of Harbor Days for 2011.

"Last year we had a lot of rain during Harbor Days and we put them away since we didn't think people would come out," said Bamberger. "Then we had someone from Fairhaven come down and ask for one and we had to make it right in the cooler, people just wanted them."

The Lion's Club makes a total of about 1500 cakes for Harbor Days, the strawberries for which, are all cut by hand in the basement of St. Anthony's during two marathon chopping sessions.

Strawberry shortcake, great as it is, will not be the only thing to come to Harbor Days for, of course.

"Everything component of Harbor Days is a fundraiser," said Bamberger.  "We built the gazebo, we built the shade sheds on the beach.

Bamberger said that since the club often asks for money from the community, this is their way of giving back to the local businesses that have been so good to them.

Harbor Days, currently in progress, runs from July 15 - 17 in Shipyard Park and Mattapoisett Harbor.  For more information, see www.mattapoisettlionsclub.org.