Strawberry Season… It’s The Best Season!

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Good morning friends!  I’m so happy to introduce you to Dennison’s Family Farm and my new friend Wayve (don’t you love that name?) Dennison.  Guess how I met Wayve?  Through this Farmgirl blog of MaryJanes!  She was reading along one day wondering what part of Tennessee I lived in, then after realizing it looked close to home, she emailed me and asked where I live… and here I am.  On a tour of their family strawberry farm!

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A little back-story here before we get too involved in the tour.  As most of you know, my husband and I moved here to Tennessee from out West where it is a desert paradise that doesn’t really sustain life.  There was no such thing as fresh strawberries, unless you managed to keep a few alive in your strawberry patch and got to enjoy the 20 – 30 tiny berries that made it to ripe without the huge Desert Spiny Lizards eating them.  So since moving to Tennessee four years ago, I have visited Dennison’s Little Red House (more on that later) to purchase their fresh strawberries every couple of days while they are in season.  So I was totally familiar with the strawberries from Dennison’s Family Farm, but since their farm is not a YouPick I had never actually had the privilege of being on the farm.  Lucky for all of us today that when I sent a message to Wayve asking if I could come to the farm and hang out with her, take pictures, ask a million questions, and be a complete nuisance (and all of this during their busiest season) she said YES!  So, that is what brings us to the farm for this fun tour… lets get started!

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I arrived first thing in the morning so that I could watch all the in’s and out’s of strawberry picking.  The whole crew gathered around as Wayve gave instructions for the day.  (Do you know that I was kind of nervous?  I felt like I was on my first day of a new job!)

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We walked out to the fields and oh my goodness.  The plants were so beautiful.  I’ve been to YouPick Strawberry Farms before so I’m familiar with how the plants look in the field, but the first thing I noticed was how huge and beautiful these were.

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I was kind of in love with the old tractor and the even cuter old wagon that Wayve drove down the lane into the field.

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The workers didn’t waste any time getting started.  When they say picking strawberries is back breaking work, it really is.  I was impressed with how fast these men and women were in picking.

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They were picking with both hands flying.  Wayve told me that the first run of berries were quite large and the pickers could fill a gallon basket in 3 minutes!

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About that time Wayve’s Daddy, the real boss of the farm (smile) backed his darling old truck down the lane up to the wagon.  He is a special man, let me tell you.  I just wanted to be like glue and stick to his side!

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As the workers came with their full strawberry buckets they placed them in a box set up on the back of the wagon.  Once the box was full (3 one gallon buckets of strawberries), Mr. Dennison put the lid on the box and moved it to the back of his truck.  He had a good system that ran like clock work, but the good thing is that in between this he had time to answer my many questions and talk about the berries.

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In the mean time I was just enjoying observing, listening, nibbling on a strawberry here and there, and soaking it all in.  One thing I noticed was that Wayve wasn’t afraid to get in the field and pick berries alongside her pickers.

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I noticed this same thing later in her brother, Frank, when he joined us.  I found that very impressive.

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Once Mr. Dennison had 25 boxes (75 gallons of berries) loaded in his truck he and I drove out of the field to their market building where they were unloaded and placed on pallets.

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Then they were immediately moved into this very large refrigerated room.

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Frank and Wayve discussed how many gallons of berries would go to each of their farm stand locations and how many to reserve back for a school fund raiser that was happening that day.

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This is Barbara, she is Wayve’s right hand help in the market area where she loads, unloads, cleans, organizes and smiles the whole time.  (All I could think was, “I want to learn to drive a fork lift!)

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The ladies that operate the farm stands (Little Red Houses) began arriving to get their berries for the day.  If I heard correctly I think they loaded 66 gallons of berries in this vehicle.   I loved standing back and watching and listening to the camaraderie between all the ladies as they calculated, figured and loaded.  Wayve said something that really stuck with me that day, “This farm operates on trust”.  And you could see it in the interaction.

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After the Little Red House ladies got on their way, Wayve and I jumped in the golf cart and she took me on a tour of the farm where she showed me the irrigation system…

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… the natural insect control (love the part the Martins play in taking care of the insects in the field) …

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… the beautiful wheat cover crop where last year’s berries were planted…

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… the gorgeous view of the farm fields that go to the trees and beyond.

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I said goodbye to Wayve (but I’ll be back for a visit when strawberry season is over!) and headed into town to one of The Little Red Houses where the ladies sell the strawberries.

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Let me tell  you, these are the cutest houses.  They catch your attention and suddenly you remember, “I need to buy strawberries today”!

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This is Carrie.  I’ve been buying my strawberries from her Little Red House for the last few weeks, but yesterday I actually got to visit with her and discuss her part of the strawberry business!  These gals go to the farm to pick up the berries and man their Little Red House six days a week during the strawberry season.  Carrie has done this for several years.  Her mother, Becky, has done it at another Little Red House for 11 years!

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After the time spent on the farm, asking questions and soaking in the answers here are a few things I learned about farming strawberries that I never knew before.

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Strawberries love warmth, but not heat.  They need water, but not flooding.  So the weather has to be just right in order to get a great strawberry crop.  This year we’ve had beautiful warm sunny days and no rain for about a month, so the strawberries have been thriving.  Wayve said she hardly remembers a season as good as this one for the berries.  (The berry plants are watered with a drip system so they get the exact amount of water they need.)

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Even though strawberry plants are perennials, they are treated as annuals.  So after all the strawberries are harvested, the land is fertilized and plowed.  In September the rows are formed again and fresh, new strawberry plants are planted.  It takes many months for them to settle in and to be ready to produce in the spring.

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The plants require continual care through the winter to keep them from freezing.  And also to keep them from getting too warm and blooming.  Row covers (put on and taken off as necessary) and water are used to care for them during those winter months.

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Strawberry farming is one of the most labor intensive fruits I can think of!  The steps taken to grow this amazing fruit is incredible.  My head was spinning.

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Farm fresh and vine ripened strawberries will be red on the outside… AND on the inside. They will be incredibly sweet and dripping with juice. They taste absolutely nothing like the strawberries you buy in the store, even ones labeled organic.  Commerically grown strawberries for the big box stores pick their berries before they fully ripen, they will continue to turn red but they will not form that amazing deep red, sweet and juicy inside that you get from strawberries allowed to ripen on the vine.  That is why those store bought strawberries tend to be white on the inside.

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The strawberries at Dennison’s seem even sweeter to me than some I’ve tasted from other farms.  Mr. Dennison explained to me that here on their farm the water from their well comes from below bedrock (about 100 feet) and it has sulphur in it.  That seems to make for very special strawberries.  I’m wondering if that is what made the plants so big and beautiful too.

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I think one of the most important things I came away with was this:  I am thankful for farmers that work hard to bring us tasty, fresh, safe, and beautiful fruit.  It is truly a labor of love.  And I will do everything I can to buy produce from my local farmers, because it truly is a privilege to do so.

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I learned WAY more than I can ever put in this one blog post.   I appreciate the time that Wayve and her Daddy took out of their busy day to educate me and I think I just may ask if I can go back in September and watch the planting!  Maybe I can take you too!

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Thank you for coming along with me today on the tour of Dennison’s Family Farm in Elora, Tennessee.  I’m glad you came!

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Until our gravel roads cross again… so long.

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Dori