Get your buckets ready, it's that time of the year. Local, fresh, juicy, delicious strawberries are waiting for you at all of the strawberry farms across the county.

There are seven commercial strawberry farms in Robeson County. A couple of them have been in business for more than 20 years, and all of the others have been in business for at least three years. With this kind of experience, these farmers know how to grow delicious berries.

Each of the farms allows you to pick your own berries, so you can be very select and pick only the most beautiful and most perfect berries. It is surprising how quickly you can fill a bucket, so it does not take but a few minutes to pick all you need.

If you don't have time to pick your own, each of them also provides berries that are already picked. These berries are usually picked during the early morning by the farmers themselves, their family, or neighbors. They are just as fresh as if you had picked them yourself.

Each of the strawberry farms are located in a different community of the county, so it is convenient for anyone in the county to easily get to a strawberry patch. These patches range in size from less than one acre to more than four acres, so there are plenty of strawberries for everyone.

If you do not know where the strawberry farms in Robeson County are located, please call our office at 910-671-3276. We will be glad to provide directions and hours of operation. You may also get this information from our web site at www.ces.ncsu.edu/robeson/hottopics/0503strawbmkts.html.

You may have seen fresh strawberries in local grocery stores for the past several weeks. In fact, you may have already enjoyed some of them. They were probably delicious, but please be aware that they are specific varieties developed so they can be harvested before they reach peak flavor, shipped for long distances, and stay on a grocery shelf for at least one week before being sold. These berries do not have the flavor and juiciness of fresh picked berries.

The varieties that our local farmers are growing are those that are designed for the fresh market. These varieties have been developed for consumers that want to allow the berry to fully ripen right in the field, and once harvested to be prepared for eating within a couple of days. Now, that is about as fresh and delicious as you can get. If you thought the strawberries shipped in from thousands of miles away were good, you will think our local berries are fantastic.

Every state in the United States and every province in Canada grows strawberries. Strawberries are so popular with consumers that just the fragrance of strawberries is a major marketing item. You don't just eat strawberries. You can buy strawberry candles, strawberry soaps, strawberry lotions, and thousands of other items with a strawberry fragrance.

The strawberry gets its name from the fact that the berries seem to be strewn among the leaves of the plant. The plant first had the name strewberry, which later was changed to strawberry.

Strawberries are not really a berry or a fruit in the "botanical" sense. A strawberry is actually an "aggregate fruit". The "berry" is actually an "enlarged receptacle" and is not reproductive material.

The strawberry plant has seeds on the outside skin rather than having an outer skin around the seed, as most berries do. They do not however, normally reproduce by seeds. When the plant is developing it sends out slender shoots called runners. These runners grow on the ground and send out roots into the soil. The roots produce new plants which grow and bear fruit. Sometimes these plants are taken from the soil and replanted to start a new plantation of strawberry plants.

Strawberries are a rather expensive crop to grow. As mentioned above, the plants do not develop from seeds, but instead must be planted from sprouts from the runners. Just the cost of the plants alone exceeds $2,000 per acre. Plants can be left in the field for more than one year, but production falls so drastically after the first year that it is more economical for commercial strawberry farmers to establish an entirely new planting each year.

The cost of laying the black plastic on which the plants grow often exceeds $2,000 per acre but it is necessary for weed control, moisture control, and to help keep the soil warm in the plant's root zone. Irrigation, not only for growth but also for frost and freeze protection, is absolutely necessary. These plants must be protected from a host of diseases that can wipe out an entire field within days. The fungicides used for this protection often cost more than $400 per gallon. It is not uncommon for a strawberry grower to have more than $10,000 invested in each acre of strawberries before anyone ever gets to his filed to pick the first berry. There is no wonder that these strawberry farmers get real nervous when the weatherman starts talking about a late frost or the chance of a hail storm.

I would like to invite you to visit one of our local strawberry farms early in the season while the berries are at their best. Pick plenty of them, some to enjoy fresh and some to put in the freezer. But I'm warning you, buy more than you need. When you place them on the seat beside you as you travel home, they will be so tempting that many of them will be gone before you get home.

E-mail address: Everett_Davis@ncsu.edu

Mailing Address:
P. O. Box 2280
Lumberton, NC 28359-2280

Phone: 910-671-3276
Fax: 910-671-6278

Date Created 10/25/05