Wednesday, May 07, 2008
The ripe time for strawberry season
Lindsey Nair
Front Burner blog
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On the last day of April, I stood on the banks of a Franklin County pond, shivering among the buttercups.
The 50-degree morning belied my purpose for visiting John and Elaine Dansby's farm: to pick a mess of ripe strawberries.
But when a red-winged blackbird zipped by, a flash of his shoulder reminded me of all the bright red berries waiting just over the hill. Sure, it was a cold April day, but the Dansbys had already been selling sweet, ripe berries for a week.
Typically, mid-May is the season for the vibrant fruit, with Mother's Day signaling the first big boom at pick-your-own farms across the state.
John, a former inspector for the Virginia Department of Agriculture, credits his early bird berries on a growing method called plasticulture.
Plasticulture uses plastic to mitigate the effects of extreme weather. The Dansbys plant their seedlings in rows of dirt mounds that are covered in black plastic, which controls erosion and warms the soil underneath.
As an added bonus, the plastic keeps weeds down, eliminating the need for chemical intervention.
The plastic won't protect against frost -- the couple must pay workers to cover their four acres of strawberries with a special blanket.
"It only disturbs our pocketbook," Elaine said.
Her husband also uses drip irrigation tape, which is laid under the plastic. He pumps water from his natural pond through the tape, allowing water to slowly drip out and moisten the ground.
"It goes right into the ground," he said. "There is very little evaporation loss."
The result is fully ripened berries that glisten like gems on the vine. As cold as it was when I visited, a handful of customers were already wandering the fields with white buckets when I arrived.
The Dansbys sell their strawberries by weight at $1.85 per pound. A full 2-gallon bucket will run you about $20; still quite low compared to grocery store prices.
On slow to average days, the couple might sell 125 to 150 pounds of strawberries. On the busiest days, which will probably include this weekend, they can sell 700 to 800 pounds in a day, so long as the field isn't picked over.
"It's not a get-rich-quick scheme," John said. "We got into strawberries as a supplemental income."
Both Dansbys are retired; he is originally from Michigan, and she is from Wisconsin. They met at a church support group for the newly divorced while working and living in Florida. She already had five children and he had two, so they combined their families.
The smoldering heat of Florida played a role in John's decision to grow strawberries in Virginia.
"The heat really got me. I just didn't care for it after a while," he said. "The reason I did strawberries is because it's a cool crop and we're done before the real heat begins."
By June, the last berries will be picked from the plants. In July or August, the Dansbys tear up the plants or mow them down. The fields are cleared and replanted every two years to the tune of about $42,000, John said.
Leaving plants in the ground any longer than two years begins to affect the size and quality of the berries.
Even though they've been growing strawberries for several years, Elaine says she never tires of them. She eats them straight off the vine, on strawberry shortcake or on hot and cold cereal, still partially frozen from the icebox.
Another of her favorites is peanut butter and strawberry sandwiches.
Most of the customers I chatted with that day planned to make freezer jam with their berries. But Elaine said as Mother's Day approaches, more families will come to the farm with plans for cakes and pies to celebrate their special day with Mom.
If it's warmer than 50 degrees, perhaps it'll feel a little more like strawberry season.
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