Your source for fruit and vegetable news

By Bobbie Whitehead

Sweet, large and, in some cases, the size of plums or ping pong balls, area strawberries this year have come in packed with sweetness, some growers say.

The last week of April with its warm temperatures produced a strong crop for strawberry growers selling fresh berries at their pick-your-own fields or farmers markets.

Most strawberry fields opened at the end of April or are opening this week with high temperatures and steady crowds of customers – some stocking up to can their own jam or freeze their berries.

“Opening day was great,” Pam Oliver, who operates Oliver Farms LLC with husband Jimmy and reopened the field April 27.

“I had somebody in my field all day long,” and in addition to strong crowds, Oliver said her strawberries this year are large. “There are some out there that are the size of ping pong balls. This year, the season is right on target.”

In 2008, strawberry growers began selling about 10 days earlier, though this year the temperatures were cooler during the early spring. The area’s 90-degree weather during the past three days, though, helped berries to ripen, Oliver said.

The Olivers plant new strawberry plants each year, the Chandler and Camorosa varieties, on their one-acre field, Oliver said.

“Fresh plants put off fresh, large berries because they were replanted,” said Oliver, noting she and her husband replant their fields each year. “For each year you leave the plants in place, the berries grow smaller, and they also lose their flavor over the years.”

The Olivers have had a good first week and have been inviting customers to visit because “here’s plenty of room for everybody,” she said.

Over in Surry, College Run Farms, which also reopened its field this week, grows and sells the Sweet Charlie and the Chandler varieties, and this year, Owner Steve Berryman said they planted the Camarosa variety, which is an early variety.

“The hot weather moved them own up,” said Berryman, who owns and operates College Run Farms in Surry with his wife, Jordan. “It’s been a little slow but not too slow.”

In Franklin, Goose Hill Farm, owned and operated by Cobb Family Produce, reopened April 25 and had a usual, steady crowd of customers picking baskets of strawberries. Now in the third year, the Cobb family keeps its answering machine updated daily about the strawberry field schedule, so customers wanting to stop by and pick should call first.

A number of strawberry fields in Suffolk, too, reopened this week. Lilley Farms on Bennett’s Pasture Road in Suffolk reopened its field in Suffolk on May 2 and will reopen its second field just across the Suffolk border on Tyre Neck Road.

“It’s a nice family activity,” said Carolyn Lilley. “We try to promote the family, and we’ve had so many schools come out this year. They have a picnic out here.”

Lilley also sells a children’s basket that includes an activity book that has recipes and an explanation of how strawberries are grown.

“We have some of the best strawberries, and this year some are the size of plums,” Lilley said.

For folks wanting to celebrate strawberries and remember their visit, Lilley Farms has strawberry cutouts for adults and children to stick their heads and hands in to have their picture taken as a strawberry.

Greene’s Strawberry Farm will reopen Monday, said Karen Fecteau, manager of the field, adding “The strawberries look good, and we are continuing to grow the Chandler variety because the customers like their flavor.”

If you’re looking for a place to buy strawberries, here’s a list of some of the following in the area. Be sure to contact the fields for schedules ahead of time: