Strawberry Fields Forever

Laura Avery
Mirror contributing writer

   Everyone loves them. They are the single most requested item in the Santa Monica-Malibu school salad bar program. They are more versatile and iconic than any other fruit in the world -– instantly recognizable, infinitely adaptable and generally very tasty. They are covered with seeds -– the only fruit that wears its seeds on the outside, yet they reproduce asexually by sending out runners, or "daughters" which are harvested and used as starters for the next generation of plants. Only one variety, the Alpine Besca, is propagated from seed, and this one is used as a virus indexing plant -- much like the canary in the coal mine, the Alpine Besca is planted around commercial strawberry fields to monitor for viruses, to which strawberries are highly susceptible. And does anyone know how strawberries got their name? 
   This year’s strawberry crop is expected to cover 25,000 acres in California – - an amount of acreage that may indicate a glut of berries on the market. Last year there were 27,000 acres planted, and farmers felt the effects of a "flat" market which translated into low prices. 
   Roger Hamamura, a sales executive for Lassen Canyon Nursery sells millions of strawberry seedlings to farmers in the southern half of California from his Irvine office. Lassen also has a northern office in Redding, and is one of the largest wholesalers of strawberry transplants in the state. Roger has been in the wholesale business with Lassen since the early 70s and he has seen boom and bust cycles in the strawberry market over the years. He remembers his father’s farm in Redlands, east of San Bernardino, where the family moved from Hawaii in 1951 to set up an exotic flower farm on ten acres of land. The searing heat of Redlands’ summers was too much for the delicate tropical flowers, and Roger’s father had to switch to a more heat-tolerant crop. 
   Many Japanese farmers had sharecropped strawberries prior to World War II, and the Hamamuras received growing instructions from neighbors who had returned to their land. By 1957, Roger’s dad was in the strawberry business and California had about 20,000 acres of berries under cultivation. Then, in the early 60s, the berry market took a steep downturn and planted acreage dropped to 8,000. The Hamamuras reduced their berry acreage to five acres, planted vegetables and opened a roadside stand. By the early 70s, Roger was invited to go to work at Lassen Canyon Nursery, from whom his family had been buying plants and whose farming experience was an asset to the company’s farming customers. 
   Strawberries are native to California, but they were of the alpine variety -– tiny and intensely flavorful -– which grew in the Tioga Pass area near Truckee and Reno. The very first commercial strawberry, called a "Klondike" was developed in the 30s and was derived from these wild mountain berries. The evolution of hybridized commercial strawberries began in earnest in the 40s with the Driscoll family, which was and is one of the largest producers commercial strawberries -– you will see their berry boxes at grocery stores everywhere. Commercial strawberry production in the 40s was centered in the San Jose area, but production was inevitably forced to move further and further south as urban development paved over California’s richest and best farmland.
   Today Lassen Canyon Nursery produces strawberry transplants on 1,500 acres of sandy ground in a small town called Mcdoel – near the Oregon border and at 4,420 feet of elevation. True to their alpine heritage, berry plants must have cold weather and go into dormancy before they can be harvested and shipped to major distribution points. Actually only about one third of the total acreage in Mcdoel is planted with strawberries in any given year –- one third is left dormant and one third is in cover crops. This is called a "three year rotation," and it gives the ground a chance to be rehabilitated prior to the rigors of strawberry production. As soon as the baby plants are harvested and shipped in September, the next plot of ground gets prepared for next year’s planting in March or April and the whole cycle repeats itself.
   Farmers plant between 20,000 and 25,000 strawberry seedlings per acre. The cost of seedlings, plus labor, soil preparation and other inputs is about $8,000 per acre. Over the course of a harvest season, roughly January through June, an acre of strawberries can cost $25,000. A good yield is 5,000 trays, consisting of 12 pint baskets per acre. Prices fluctuate wildly over the six-month period, with early berries fetching as much as $30 to $40 per tray. Those are giddy prices which last for about a month or six weeks at best, and by the end of the harvest cycle in June, wholesale prices can be $2 per tray. Strawberries are notoriously sensitive to cold and moisture. One drop of rain will cause a soft spot to form on a strawberry which will rapidly break down the whole fruit and render it unsalable. Without adequate sunshine, berries will retain their white or green "shoulders," making them less appealing and less valuable. 
   But as we all know, strawberries are everywhere in markets, all year long. How is it that this tiny, delicate alpine fruit has become a staple of California agriculture and one of the most popular edibles in the world? Next week we will meet Victor Voth, the godfather of California strawberries and a living legend in the strawberry field.