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Festival Will Have Plenty Of Strawberries, Shortcake

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By GEORGE WILKENS | The Tampa Tribune

Published: February 12, 2009

Despite recent freezes, local experts say there will be abundant berries available for the annual Florida Strawberry Festival that begins Feb. 26.

"The strawberry festival is fine," said Ted Campbell, who took over six months ago as executive director of 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 tour today 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 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."

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'' – building fires to keep the crop from freezing, he said.

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

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

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