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Not Too Hot, Not Too Cold, Plant City Is Just Right

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By JAN HOLLINGSWORTH, The Tampa Tribune

Published: February 28, 2008

PLANT CITY - The queen is crowned, the parade floats decorated, the strawberries stemmed and the atmosphere charged with anticipation as this town prepares to pay annual homage to the crop that put it on the map.

At a time when modern culture is defined by the wireless BlackBerry, Plant City's obsession with a simple fruit might seem quaint but antiquated.

Yet tens of thousands journey to this rural enclave each year to participate in the Florida Strawberry Festival, which begins today and runs through March 9.

Nothing short of world war has stood between Plant City and its celebration of the perfect storm of latitude, climate, circumstance and providence that created the world's winter strawberry capital in the eastern corner of Hillsborough County.

"I live on a piece of property that's been in the family since the late 1880s and it's had berries on it ever since," said Michelle Williamson, whose family produces about 10 percent of the berries in Hillsborough County.

The Williamsons, one of the oldest farming clans in the county, came to Dover from Jacksonville. They were among the first to discover they had landed in perhaps the best place in the world to cultivate winter strawberries.

"Further north, there were more problems with winter freezes, further south, it was too warm in the winter for consistent production," said Craig Chandler, a professor of horticulture and strawberry breeder at the University of Florida's Gulf Coast Research and Education Center in Wimauma.

Even the length of the days in this global "sweet spot" is conducive to prolific winter berry production, said Allen Williford, president of the Florida Strawberry Growers Association.

The area's extraordinarily fertile southern soil sealed the deal as far as growing berries. However, it was a Connecticut Yankee who made it possible to get the fragile fruit to market.

Both Plant City and its berry industry were born of the railroad that Henry Plant built.

The first record for berries shipped out of this budding railroad town dates back to 1892, according to "Plant City: Its Origin and History," by the late Quintilla Geer Bruton and David E. Bailey Jr.

The industry grew from there.

In the early 1900s, agriculture records show only 169 of the state's 1,300 acres of berry production were in Plant City. Bradford County was, at the time, the center of Florida berry production. The shift to Hillsborough was swift and profound.

Berry growing was a family affair - labor intensive and requiring the participation of men, women and children.

Public schools in the area - known as "strawberry schools" - followed the schedule of the harvest until 1957. Students in eastern Hillsborough County attended strawberry schools in the summer and took off during the winter to help with the family's berry operation.

The youngsters not only picked berries, earning 2 cents to 3 cents per quart, they pitched in to cover the plants with straw - and later brown paper - to protect the crops from the threat of freeze.

"Later they used water to frost-protect," Williamson said. "That's all I remember as a kid growing up in the '60s and '70s."

Irrigating the fields when the mercury dips below freezing is the method used to this day.

Demand Back On The Rise

By the 1920s, small family berry patches were largely replaced by vast fields. Berry acreage expanded from 300 acres per season to 6,000 and Plant City had officially earned the title of World's Winter Strawberry Capital.

Fresh winter berries were a glamour product served in the hotels of large eastern cities and on steamships sailing from New York. The fragile, highly perishable fruit required special handling - hand-packed in quart cups, nestled in chipped ice and shipped by passenger train from Plant City, the largest inland shipping point in Florida. Freight trains were too slow.

A landmark transportation ruling in the 1930s, which required express companies to provide full refrigerated car service, contributed to the expansion of the industry.

Strawberries, the king of the crops, had earned a queen.

In 1930, Plant City crowned its royal court and launched the first strawberry festival. The ritual has been repeated every year except during and shortly after World War II.

By the 1980s, berry acreage shrank from a high of 6,000 acres to no more than 600. Quick-freeze technology allowed summer berries produced in California and elsewhere to be preserved and consumer demand for winter berries waned.

When Williamson married into the century-old Dover berry empire 25 years ago, the industry was on the upswing again.

"We had 50 acres back then. Now my husband's family has right at 800," she said.

Much of it is former citrus land.

"We purchased groves to convert into berry production," she said.

Berry production in Hillsborough County has grown to encompass some 8,000 acres.

Technology, Breeding Help Industry

Much has changed over the past century in how the berries are grown. Scientists have developed Florida varieties better adapted to the state's climate than the California cultivars once used.

Machines have replaced mules in the fields, though berries remain a uniquely labor-intensive crop requiring many hands to gather the ripened fruit.

And plastic has replaced the straw that once covered berry beds, providing more effective weed and pest control.

The farmers' age-old battle with the elements remains the same.

Wednesday morning, as a late-season cold front threatened the berry crop for the second time this year, festival organizers prepared to kick off the 73rd annual ode to the strawberry.

Business should be as brisk as the weather, festival president Gary Boothe said.

"I think that tomorrow will be a perfect spring day for all the people from up North who will be coming for Senior Citizens' Day," he said.

As long as there are berries, people will come. For now, there are more berries than ever. Still, the threat of urbanization looms large in a county where rooftops are becoming the most visible crop.

Chandler, who travels the world visiting places that produce winter fruit, said Plant City is second to none when it comes to strawberries.

"I just hope we can preserve that with continued urbanization in the area. I think this industry is quite valuable," he said.

Reporter Jan Hollingsworth can be reached at (813) 865-4436 or jhollingsworth@tampatrib.com.

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