Berries Precious, Few After Rains

Traditionally, strawberry farmers are big fans of romance. It’s not necessarily that they’re more sensitive than anybody else (though their fruit may be), it’s that Valentine’s Day usually marks the beginning of their peak season.

Not this year. Romance is going to have to wait. After the series of winter storms that swept through Southern California last week, strawberries are at a premium.

In fact, in both Orange and Ventura counties, pickers are hard at work right now stripping rain-damaged ripe fruit from plants to send to processors.

“We’re going through the fields with our picking crews, and anything with full color is going to the juice tray; it’s going to Smuckers,” says David Cook of Deardorff-Jackson, a major Ventura County grower-shipper of both strawberries and vegetables.

How long the strawberry drought will last depends largely on how much more rain we get. In Orange County, growers are counting on green fruit to be ready to pick by this weekend. In Ventura County around Oxnard, the weather was worse. It will probably be the middle of next week before picking begins again for the fresh market.

Prices reflect that state of affairs. Strawberries this week were wholesaling for about $20 a flat, up about 25% from last week and about half again as much as this time last year.

Overall, though, vegetable prices are only slightly higher than normal as the rich growing grounds of the Imperial Valley and the area around Yuma, Ariz., escaped most of the rain.

The exceptions are the crops that are concentrated along the southern coast, mainly in Ventura County. Broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower and celery are anywhere from 25% to 50% higher than at this time last year.

Not all the damage from the weather can be immediately ascertained. There are long-term threats as well, particularly in the Central Valley, where it rained all but one of the first eight days of February.

The problem there is pollination. Depending on location and variety, fruit and nut trees from Visalia to Modesto began to bloom late last week. If it’s cool and rainy, the bees just don’t feel like doing their business.

Of course, that could change with Valentine’s Day coming up.

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Farmers’ Market Pick of the Week: David Goldman grows 16 types of lettuce hydroponically in Reseda. He harvests it with its roots still on, so it will stay fresher longer in the refrigerator. He sells at the Northridge market on Saturday, at Encino on Sunday and at Culver City on Tuesday. Source: Carolyn Olney, Southland Farmers’ Market Assn.