Cultivating a Winning Crop : Strawberries Take Root and Thrive in County’s Perfect Climate
Ask Mike Conroy why he moved from Watsonville to Oxnard in 1972 and he will rattle off the answer before you can say strawberry shortcake.
There was the climate--warm days and cool nights were perfect for growing strawberries--and the then-untapped strawberry market.
Simply put, it was an ideal situation.
Like other strawberry growers before him, and many more since, Conroy recognized the potential of the area and planted himself in Ventura County, buying 200 acres.
Since then, the county has become so popular among strawberry growers that in 1994 it produced 4,400 acres of the crop with a total value of $110 million, accounting for 22% of the state’s total output, according to the California Strawberry Commission.
And there you have the reason for Oxnard’s 12-year-old California Strawberry Festival, the tribute to Ventura County’s second leading crop behind lemons. This year’s festival, featuring an array of edible strawberry concoctions, musical entertainment, arts and crafts and other family activities, will be held Saturday and Sunday at Oxnard’s College Park.
With all the hoopla surrounding strawberries, one might be led to believe they were always bountiful in Ventura County. Not so. Not in an area that for decades was dominated by lima beans and sugar beets.
According to a survey conducted by the U.S. Department of Commerce and the Bureau of the Census, there were only seven acres of strawberries produced in Ventura County in 1935.
Hardly earth-shattering numbers, but it was a start.
Strawberry production really began to pick up steam in the mid-1950s. By 1960, according to reports by the University of California Agricultural Extension Service, there were about 550 acres of strawberries in Ventura County.
By 1969, the figure had jumped to 915 acres, and in 1972, to 1,370 acres. Strawberry production tapered off because of drought in the late 1970s but quickly recovered and has been holding strong since the mid-1980s.
“When I arrived, Oxnard was the primary growing area between the Northern California and Southern California regions,” Conroy said. “Back then, San Diego and Orange County were the major players in the south. But as ground became more expensive in Orange County, and there was an infringement of urban population, a lot of growers moved to the Oxnard district.”
The move made sense: Oxnard’s climate has long been suited for growing the weather-sensitive strawberry.
Surrounded by mountains to the east and the ocean to the west, the fertile Oxnard Plain is the beneficiary of sunny days and cool nights--mild temperatures in general.
The labor-intensive strawberry season begins in late August or early September as the growers fumigate, fertilize and prepare the fields for planting. Planting itself starts around the end of September and, depending on the weather, the growing season lasts through late December or early January.
Finally, the harvest takes place between January and May. Timing of the harvest is critical because heat can seriously damage the crop. Growers in Southern California harvest earlier than those in the north, because the south heats up slightly earlier in the year.
Throughout the growth cycle, farmers combat the various pests interested in the fruits of their labor. There’s the Two Spot spider mite, aphids and various worms. In addition to using pesticides, the growers also fight the bad pests with good pests such as predator spider mites.
Assuming all goes well, local growers are generally among the first in the state to get their strawberries to market. Most growers contract with shippers to deliver their strawberries, while some do their own shipping.
Curiously, we don’t consume most of the strawberries grown in our back yard. About 70% of the local strawberry crop is shipped to the eastern United States.
“That’s where the big demand is,” Conroy said. “They might have two to three weeks of fruit stand-type berries there, but we’re the ones who supply the big city chains.”
More efficient irrigation, more durable and improved varieties of strawberries and other advances throughout the industry have led to substantially more efficient production over the years.
County growers produced an average of 23.1 tons of strawberries per acre in 1972, according to the state Strawberry Commission. Productivity increased to 33 tons per acre in 1994. That’s particularly significant when you consider it costs about $10,000 an acre to grow and harvest strawberries.
Conroy said the number of field workers per acre of strawberries varies depending on the variety of berry because some are easier to pick than others. He said the berry he is currently growing, the Chander variety, takes an average of 2 1/2 workers per acre.
Workers are paid differently from ranch to ranch, said Conroy. Some are paid about $1.30 per crate, others are paid an hourly rate plus incentives. He said his workers are receive $3 per hour plus 80 cents a crate.
It is the growers’ ability to cool the harvested strawberries long enough to ship them thousands of miles to market that has, in large part, enabled the local and statewide business to thrive during the last 20 to 30 years.
“Your shipping time by truck is three to five days to the East, so cooling is very important,” said Don DeArmond, the general manager of Oxnard’s Statewide Cooling Co., which handles 5.5 million trays of strawberries annually.
“After you harvest from the field, you want to get the field heat out of the fruit and cool it down to 33 or 34 degrees as soon as possible,” said DeArmond, co-chair of the Strawberry Festival. “That slows down the fruit’s respiration rate, the breaking down of the fruit, which improves its shelf life and the quality of the strawberries when they get to the consumer.”
Additional advances in the packaging of strawberries has also led to an improvement in the quality of the berries when they reach the consumer. Instead of standard 12-pint trays, strawberries are delivered in one- and two-pound trays, half trays and quart containers.
This may not sound like a big deal, but it is to the growers and ultimately to the consumer.
“Different packaging means less handling at the supermarket level and less food being thrown away,” said Jamie Deardorff, a salesman with the Deardorff-Jackson Co., a third-generation Ventura County farming family with 160 acres of strawberries in Camarillo. “Over the last couple of years packaging has changed dramatically. It’s more environmentally conscious.”
But with all the planning, research and development that goes into strawberry farming, success or failure often comes down to something beyond the growers’ control.
Which brings us back to weather.
The same climate that allows strawberries to flourish, can also put a serious crimp in the crop when the weather goes bad. Though well-timed rain can improve the health of the strawberry plant and increase productivity, rain at other times of the strawberry season, particularly warm spring rain, can cause rotting, disease and other damage.
DeArmond estimated that this year’s yield in Ventura County would be down 15% to 25% because of the rains.
“You can have pollination problems,” Conroy said. “Hail and rainfall may hinder growth production and you can get a malformed fruit. Wind, rain and hail can cause creasing and you can get a very gnarly looking berry. Until the whole thing comes into the barn come August, you really don’t know.”
Though all crops are affected by the weather, the strawberry is particularly vulnerable, and thus so is the grower.
“We call the strawberry industry the riverboat gambler of commodities in this county. They have the highest degree of capital investment per acre relative to what the selling price might be,” said Rex Laird, president of the Ventura County Farm Bureau. “Vegetable growing is not for the faint of heart, and strawberries are beyond that. The growers really live by their wits.”
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California Festivals
MAY
19-21: Shafter Potato & Cotton Festival, 746-2600
20-21: Campbell Prune Festival, (408) 378-6252
27-28: Arroyo Grande Strawberry Festival, 473-2250
27-28: Morgan Hill Mushroom Mardi Gras, (408) 779-9444
JUNE
1-4: Beaumont Cherry Festival, (909) 845-9541
2-4: Patterson Apricot Fiesta, (209) 892-3118
10-11: San Leandro Annual Cherry Festival, (510) 577-3469
17: Hilmar Dairy Festival, (209) 668-BULL
17-18: Cherries Jubilee Festival (Placerville), (916) 626-6521
24-25: Gridley Rice Festival, (916) 846-3333
24-25: N. Monterey County Strawberry Festival, (408) 663-4166
JULY
20-23: Mendota Harvest Festival, (209) 655-2530
28-30: Gilroy Garlic Festival, (408) 842-1625
30: Wild Blackberry Festival (Westhaven), (707) 677-3765
AUGUST
3-6: Firebaugh Cantaloupe Roundup, (209) 659-3701
5-6: Dry Bean Festival (Tracy), (209) 835-2131
5-6: Fairfield Tomato Festival, (707) 422-0103
12: Potato Harvest Festival (Summerset), (916) 620-3248
12-13: Sebastopol Gravenstein Apple Fair, (707) 829-4728
19-20: Hayward Zucchini Festival, (510) 264-9466
24-26: Corning Olive City Festival, (916) 824-5550
SEPTEMBER
9-10: Vacaville Onion Festival, (707) 448-4613
9-10: California Prune Festival (Yuba City), (916) 671-3100
17: Zucchini Festival, (Angels Camp), (209) 754-6477
23-24: Castroville Artichoke Festival, (408) 633-2465
28-30: Dinuba Raisin Festival, (209) 591-2707
30-Oct. 1: Oakley Almond Festival, (510) 625-1035
30-Oct. 1: California Avocado Festival (Carpinteria), 684-0038
