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Strawberries For Everyone

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By GEORGE WILKENS

gwilkens@tampatrib.com

Published: February 18, 2009

PLANT CITY - Despite recent freezes, local experts say there will be abundant berries available for the annual Florida Strawberry Festival, which begins next week.

"The strawberry festival is fine," said a confident Ted Campbell, who took over six months ago as executive director of the Dover-based Florida Strawberry Growers Association. "We're supplying half of America with strawberries right now."

The 11-day festival, which this year runs Feb. 26 through March 8, is held "at the peak of our season; always is. There's plenty of production right now," Campbell said.

"The frost hurt maybe a few blooms and some of the very tiny fruit a few weeks ago, but not enough to cause any real dip in the productivity level," he said after a Thursday tour of local strawberry fields. "So the strawberries are growing; they're picking, there are a lot of harvesters out in the field."

Any small drop in production is attributable to a pause in harvesting during recent cold, wet weather, he said.

Paul Davis, overseeing the Florida Strawberry Festival for the first time as general manager, concurs there is no need for concern: "Plenty of strawberry shortcake will be available."

Davis lauds the local farmers. "They really know what they're doing, and it's because of their expertise we're able to produce such great crops," yielding "sweeter, bigger, juicier berries."

Added Davis, "What you have to understand, the strawberry farmers in this area, many of them are third-generation strawberry farmers. Some go back to the day when they were firing strawberry fields - built fires to keep them from freezing.

"The strawberry festival was started to celebrate the harvest of strawberries and never strayed far from those roots."

Reporter George Wilkens can be reached at (813) 865-4433.

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