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- Strawberry Growers
Enjoy Long Season
- By Bill McNutt
Ohio Correspondent
- It’s not difficult to promote strawberries as delicious, nutritious and healthy. This small fruit is a staple of specialty growers in the Midwest, with entire towns becoming tourist meccas for a weekend of gorging on the naturally sweet fruit in every possible way.
Midwest growers would admit this is an easy sell, but would also lament the fact they can promote strawberries for less than a month of the year. Keith Struderman doesn’t particularly want Midwest growers to move to Florida, where with seven acres of berries, he’s the largest grower in the area, but does admit there are advantages to a six-month season and warm weather to boot.
Not that Kevin isn’t a bit of a carpetbagger himself, coming to Lake County in Central Florida from Oregon, where his knowledge of fruit growing was first honed. And that was after growing up in Delaware and graduating from the ag college there. Married in Oregon to Karen, who had graduated from that state’s agricultural college, the duo soon decided to make another cross country traverse and relocated near the small town of Sorrento, Fla.
The berries are planted in October after the previous crop has been cleared, and a sorghum cover crop planted. Plants go into raised beds under plastic, then are fumigated with methyl bromide (although being phased out under EPA restrictions). A slow release fertilizer is also used. The main varieties are Camerosa and Treasure. Both have a firmer texture than Midwest varieties, but retain sweetness and taste for a longer period of time, qualities needed because of the longer growing season.
After the berry crop was established, they planted six acres of Christmas trees, a natural extension to aid cash flow prior to the berry season. Berry picking begins here in early December, and goes on until April, with the middle three months a full bore operation. Tree sales start in November, but come to an abrupt halt Dec. 24. The transition into berries is a natural one, without overloading the labor force, which includes Karen and Kevin, along with some local help as needed.
Families can actually pick out their Christmas tree, and pick strawberries during the same visit. School tours are a regular feature, with special rows reserved for the kids. When strawberries are in season, the weekends attract crowds that can almost create a traffic jam.
Black-eyed peas and onions have been added to the specialty crop mix in the past year, which not only provides an attractive mix to customers, but extends the u-pick season. The idea is to have crop harvested by the customer - even the trees are cut by the buyer, sometimes with the entire family helping make the choice, after being provided the necessary tools. This runs counter Midwest, where u-pick seems to be losing out because of families with two working parents. But it seems to work for the Strudermans, perhaps because of the high number of retirees in the area, who not only welcome the harvesting opportunity, but also the chance to work part-time.
Word-of-mouth plus use of a phone hot- line help keep everybody informed. A small amount of advertisements let customers know when each season opens; after that it’s just a case of keeping the road to the market open.
This year a weekend refreshment stand opened, in addition to the farm market, and may be extended to every market day, if successful. Strawberry lovers can pay for strawberry themed desserts, including homemade strawberry shortcake, with whipped topping or vanilla ice cream - or both. They offer the same dessert without the berries, if anyone feels this is their thing, or just plain berries with topping. They also offer rich strawberry milkshakes.
While this part of Lake County is mostly rural, its suburban housing population is growing, with Orlando, Kissimee and Sanford near enough to bring a fairly constant stream of customers.
No Florida grower can be assured freedom from suburban development, and this area is no exception. However both Karen and Kevin feel there’s a good living plus a bright future in this enterprise, which they took a chance on because of a mutual desire for independence. Indications are they have made the right decision.
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