strawberries

[caveman]

Our FFA chapter sold 375 flats of strawberries yesterday and today.  When it gets near the end of the season here, the packing houses become very particular about the berries they accept.  On a pallet, which has 108 flats, if there is a berry or two that is bruised, they will reject the whole pallet.  The grower is responsible for picking up the rejected berries.  A local grower gives us some of their rejected berries and we sell them as a fund raiser for our FFA chapter.  These berries are super sweet.  My wife picked up 12 flats today for her office and for us at home.

[sawguy21]

Now that just ain't fair. :(

[SwampDonkey]

In the winter time, the Florida berries are the best. I'll give you that. We have some here at the house now. But in the summer, they can't stand up to our own northern berries in season I'm afraid. ;)

And that sounds just like a processor, if I ever seen one. Too cheap to train someone to pick out a bad berry in a thousand or find ways to steal 20 % of the crop. 

[WV Sawmiller]

   While I was stationed in Albany GA at the USMC base there a buddy and I were carpooling and a guy was selling strawberries off a truck and marked them down about half price because they were dead ripe. We stopped and bought 6-8 flats thinking the wives would be so happy with our gesture. Wrong! They had to stop what they were doing and immediately make preserves out of what they could not pawn off on other neighbors. Of course they chastised us most severe the whole time till they were finished.

   Reminds me we still have 2-3 gallons in the freezer my son picked out of his flower bed garden at the end of the season last year.

[LeeB]

Nice ripe strawberries make an excellent wine.  smiley_alcoholic_01

[Raider Bill]

I've been eating fresh Plant City Berries for a week and a half nonstop! Have a produce stand walking distance.  ;D ;D

[thecfarm]

I've been looking for them.
Raider Bill,How much are they?
We have a upick about 15 minutes from here. I worked for him one year. Use to have strawberries for breakfast. delish!!!!!

[sawguy21]

 :'( We won't see fresh berries before June.

[Magicman]

And then there is the Ponchatoula Strawberry Festival in Ponchatoula, LA.   ;D

[MFinity]

...and here we are, garden under a foot of snow... strawberries MONTHS away... <sob> 

[caveman]

Plant City, which is a few miles away and in Hillsborough County has a Strawberry Festival.  It will begin next month.  It is a fair with animals, rides and lots of concerts.  When our FFA chapter won the National FFA Forestry Contest in 2015, the team was invited to walk in the Strawberry Festival Parade (the whole town basically shuts down for a few hours during the parade).



  These were some that I bought.  I had to mix them with Blue Bell vanilla ice cream. 

[WDH]

We had strawberries and ice cream this weekend.  My grand daughter loved it. 

[MFinity]

stop it stop it yer killin me  :'(

[trapper]

Where is the best place to buy them when we are in the area next month?  Some i have purchased in flea markets in the past havnt had much flavor.

[caveman]

The road side stands should be about as good a place as any and a lot cheaper than the grocery stores.  Buy ripe ones, they are sweeter than the unripe berries ;D.

[Raider Bill]

We paid $8.00 a flat last week. Will be getting a couple more this week and freezing them.

http://www.flstrawberryfestival.com/headline-entertainment/

[caveman]

I got word a little while ago that we will have over 150 more flats to move tomorrow.  I suspect we will sell them for $5 a flat. 

[sprucebunny]

Geesh... Plant City strawberries on sale last week for $2/pound.

[Raider Bill]

Geesh... Plant City strawberries on sale last week for $2/pound.

A POUND!!! DanG it!

[thecfarm]

A flat?
I pick about 10 pounds for $20 come July.

[caveman]

A flat should weigh about 8 pounds.

[thecfarm]

Much better prices in FL.

[petefrom bearswamp]

Got back from FL on Saturday.
Sold our FL house.
We will miss the Plant City strawberries as well as the ability to keep our vehicle clean for more than 1 hr after washing.

[Raider Bill]

Got back from FL on Saturday.
Sold our FL house.
We will miss the Plant City strawberries as well as the ability to keep our vehicle clean for more than 1 hr after washing.

Hope to see you [and some more cheese] next year Pete.

Flats of berries are now $5 a flat down from $8 last week. Looks like I'll be freezing strawberries this week.

[SwampDonkey]

We are eating them here to, CDN $5 for 2 lbs.  ;D

[petefrom bearswamp]

The strawberries we bought when there were at a roadside stand and the Market of Marion.
No cheap but good.
I paid 3 bucks a pint at Marion.

[caveman]

My co-workers accepted "donations" for 216 more flats today while I was occupied with yard bird running gear.  I did take a break to unload them off the trailer.  Just got home a few minutes ago and had a bowlful for supper-plum larruping (old saying).

 

[horselogger50]

Hoping this year to have a good crop of strawberries arond our garden.

[SwampDonkey]

Plant City berries up here this week for $4.88 for 2 lbs.

[caveman]

We moved 216 flats yesterday for $5 a flat donation.  I just had some more on Blue Bell ice cream.  They were very good.  The festival begins soon.  My parents said there was a line like at Disney at Parksdale Farms' market today for shortcake and strawberry products.  Many of the growers are already spraying the fields with glyphosate and getting ready to grow squash.

I planted my home garden last weekend.  The only seeds that have sprouted are black eyed peas. 

[Magicman]

And I thought that black eyed peas only came from the grocery store.     :D

[Raider Bill]

Price correction, Flats were $10 yesterday. Bought 2 more to cut up and freeze.

[caveman]

One of my coworkers got 116 more flats today.  Most are already gone. 

[caveman]

Raider Bill, your $10/flat strawberries were evidently not a champion flat or a smoking deal.  Yesterday, while I was driving our FFA nursery and landscape team home from their state contest in Apopka, one of the kids mentioned that the champion flat of strawberries at the Plant City Strawberry Festival sold for $8,000.  How many dollars does that cost for the average berry? 

Plant City, which is in Hillsborough County, puts some real money behind their festival winners.  As another example, the grand champion market hog sold for $20/pound Friday.  At our county fair in January, the champion market hog sold for $5/pound-Polk (my county) abuts Hillsborough County.

[Raider Bill]

I heard on Bay News 9 that the Strawberry festival is the 40th largest fair in the country. Considering that it's bigger than 10 state fairs  that says a lot.

[SwampDonkey]

Who would ever think, with a lot of the farms going to suburbia down there.

[Raider Bill]

Who would ever think, with a lot of the farms going to suburbia down there.

Florida is funny like that. You can go from beaches/ tourist traps/ Mickeyland/suburbia/inner cities to rural/farm country in a half hour drive. Drive east out of crime ridden Tampa just a few miles and you are in old Florida Cracker country.

[caveman]

Florida's second leading industry, behind tourism, is agriculture.  Polk County was know as the "World's Citrus Capitol" until fairly recently.  Our state is a leader in winter vegetables, citrus, and is 5th in the nation in beef cattle production.  Believe it or not, forestry is Florida's leading agriculture industry.  In addition to this, south of here, a lot of sugar cane, avacados, mangos and other crops are grown.  Central Florida leads the nation in tropical fish farms too-I probably drive past 4-5 on my way to work depending on the route I take.

Like Swampdonkey stated, a lot of land that was previously in agriculture, especially citrus, has been replaced by residential or commercial buildings.  The citrus trees like well drained soil.  Most folks also prefer to live on well drained sand hills as opposed to poorly drained swampy areas. 

[SwampDonkey]

Shame though good farms get absorbed in the housing. Hard to grow good food on a marsh. Up here a wetland is easily a new building lot with fill and rock on top. Lots of that from the glaciers. ;)

[Raider Bill]

We need room for Yankees and our funny sounding neighbors across the Northern border. :D :D

[SwampDonkey]

If I was you I would send them back where they belong across the border.  ;D :D

[Magicman]

 

 
  I am a bad man.   ;D

[pineywoods]

 
  I am a bad man.   ;D

Blue Bell Home-made vanilla ?

[caveman]

I have a weakness for Blue Bell vanilla and strawberries.  Magicman, that is a smaller serving than I expected you to have unless that is your second or third bowl.

Blueberries are almost ripe here and a friend of mine has a 25 acre field.  Once the price falls, we will go out and pick a bunch of those.  I mush the berries, heat in the microwave for about 30 seconds and put them on Blue Bell vanilla too.  The berries we picked out of that field last year were amazing.

[LeeB]

 
  I am a bad man.   ;D

Bad man? No, lucky yes. I wish I could eat like you and remain thin like you do.

[Magicman]

Yes, Blue Bell.

caveman, that hand is PatD handing me the bowl after she had finished eating her part.   ;D

[sandhills]

I agree with Lee, heck I think you just have good taste 

[sawguy21]

You just had to show me that, didn't you. :'(