Workers in Eddie Mercer’s Dover strawberry fields pick Festival and Winter Dawn varieties of berries in his 68 acres of fields Thursday morning. - KATHY MOORE/The Tampa Tribune

By LINDSAY PETERSON
The Tampa Tribune

DOVER - Most plants love a good soaking every now and then, but not the ripened strawberry.

Florida’s berry farmers watched the storms move across their fields on Christmas Day and worried the water would turn their fruit into little red sponges.

Most of the growers were relieved to find the losses light. But with more rain in the forecast - and heat pushing the berries to maturity – they rushed this week to get all the ripened fruit out of the fields.

“You’re always concerned when they talk about a front coming in, like the one we had. You never know how bad it’s going to be,” said Tommy Brock, president of the Florida Strawberry Growers Association.

Hillsborough County farmers grow about 15 percent of the country’s strawberries and nearly all the winter-grown strawberries.

Jose Rosales stood in a Dover field this week with about 50 workers, all bent over, moving slowly up and down the neat rows feeling for ripe fruit. He fished around in a plant and pulled out one deep red berry, squeezing it lightly to show how soft it had become.

“When they’re ripe they soak in the water, and they get bad,” said Rosales, crew chief for farmer Eddie Mercer.

“A lot of rain for us is not a good thing,” Mercer said. “I know the area needs it and all that, but as far as we’re concerned, it’s hardly ever good.”

Mercer said the Christmas Day rain was heavier north of Dover and saturated a couple of farms. “One guy had damage so bad they went in there and stripped the whole field.”

Mercer’s losses that day were minimal across his 68 acres in Dover, and Thursday morning the air was crisp, following a chilly night. “Everything looks good,” he said. “On days like this you know why you’re in this kind of work.”

He and the other strawberry farmers around Dover and Plant City planted nearly 8,000 acres this year, about the same amount as last year.

The first eight-pound flat was produced in mid-November, with the volume picking up in mid-December and expected to go strong through February, said Julie Chandler, of the Florida Strawberry Growers Association. Farmers hope to match last year’s yield of 17 million flats.

But a lot of that depends on the weather, which took a slight turn this year.

El Nino changed the upper-level wind patterns and dragged the jet stream farther south than it normally would be. That means more rain and higher temperatures.

The chill Mercer relished this week was short-lived. Temperatures on Thursday climbed to 76, about six degrees above average. Today, they’re expected to hit 82, with rain expected Monday.

Strawberries don’t like to be frozen, but they like a chilling, said Brock, who grew strawberries for 26 years but recently sold his farm to a strawberry broker so it will continue to be used to grow berries.

Lower temperatures keep strawberries from maturing too fast, Brock said. The longer they remain tied to their plants, the more sun and nutrients they soak up and the better they taste.

So heat and rain can be a double curse to a farmer. An unripe berry isn’t as vulnerable to a downpour. “But you get a bunch of berries pushed out, and then rain. That makes a lot of people nervous, Mercer said.

So far, the weather hasn’t been a widespread problem, Chandler said. “It’s nothing the average consumer is going to notice.”

In fact, for Brock, the season has been better than expected.

“We always have to deal with some kind of weather. We’re used to that,” he said. But labor concerns joined the usual weather fears this year. Farmers worried the focus on illegal immigration had driven so many people back to Mexico and Central America that there wouldn’t be enough field workers.

The farmers have found all the people they needed, Brock said. “I’ve been surprised. Everyone seems to have enough labor.”

But that could change, warned the ever-wary farm veteran. “We’re nowhere near our peak production.”

Reporter Lindsay Peterson can be reached at (813) 259-7834.

Get Weekly Deals | Write a letter to the editor | Subscribe and get two weeks free | Place an Ad