Strawberry pickers expected in fields when not shopping for mom

VIRGINIA BEACH

With a couple of toddlers and an infant in tow, two Virginia Beach moms entered a Pungo strawberry field at 8 a.m. Thursday

Dark clouds filled the sky. Raindrops threatened. But, before 10, the women had picked 97 pounds of berries and were headed for home.

“Strawberry jam,” Becky Zook said, laughing across the mounds of berries on the counter at Cromwell Farms Produce. “My husband gave strict instructions: Lots of strawberry jam!”

Zook and her picking partner, Heather Miller, also bought some asparagus and May peas. They spent $127.

Mother’s Day weekend is typically the height of the strawberry season in southeast Virginia. Hordes of pickers are expected to be in the fields, said Cal Schiemann, local extension agent and strawberry expert.

The berries actually started ripening about a week ago, said Elizabeth Cromwell, daughter of farm owner John Cromwell Jr. For some local growers, Schiemann said, this season has been early, but it hasn’t been easy.

First, strawberry growers battled anthracnose crown rot. It’s a disease that’s unusual for Virginia. Warm winter temperatures – the same thing that brought the crop in early – may have caused the disease.

“When we found it, we acted immediately,” Schiemann said. “We got it under control quickly.”

The disease hasn’t affected the quality of the fruit now ripening. Like other local growers, John Cromwell’s biggest concern is getting the customers to the fields.

Cromwell grew up on a family farm that’s “all houses now.” After he graduated from N.C. State, with a degree in agronomy, he worked for a while for a farm in North Carolina. In 1983, he and his wife, Betsy, bought their 167-acre farm on Newbridge Road, complete with a 200-year-old farmhouse.

“They can’t chase me away from this one,” he said, as he stood in the fields. “This is in the city’s agricultural reserve program. Development has come to us, but we’re not going anywhere.”

This year, he’s expanded his produce shed using wood from an old barn, giving it a rustic appeal. He has on-the-farm labor, his 18-year-old daughter, and 17-year-old twins, William and Robert – all headed for agriculture degrees. He has two Mexican laborers who live on the farm. They’ve been with him for seven years.

Luvenia Dailey, picking a “big pot” of berries, said she comes back every year to Cromwell’s farm.

“He has a good family, good produce,” she said. “And he gives to the needy. He lets our church come in and pick so we can help feed the needy. This is a beautiful place.”

Betsy Cromwell smiled when she heard Dailey’s comment. Seeing the same people year after year is exactly what makes strawberry season so great, she said.

“I love this place; I love this farm,” she said. “We don’t have a whole lot here, but I really like what we have.”

Linda McNatt, (757) 222-5561, linda.mcnatt@pilotonline.com