Harsh winter delays strawberry season for some U-Pick farms

SAN DIEGO (FOX 5/KUSI) — This winter’s harsh weather, cold spells and rainfall has caused a delay in this year’s strawberry season.

Normally U-Pick Strawberry fields are open to the public by the beginning of March, but they are delayed this year due to the winter weather.

The Carlsbad Strawberry Company has lost out on 85% of strawberry production to date.

“From flower to ripe fruit is normally about four to five weeks, but at this stage, the strawberries are very delicate, and if we get a big storm or a big rain drop hits it, we can get a misshapen strawberry,” Jimmy Ukegawa, the third generation owner of Carlsbad Strawberry Company said. “We’ll never make up for that lost time.”

He said the abnormal winter cut their strawberry harvest from eight months, down to five months.

“The rains this year have been so consistent, we have not been able to open up our front stand, until this month, until March, normally we open up in January, so we lost out on all our January production, and February, so we are really far behind this year,” Ukegawa said.

Because of the storm, Ukegawa said they’ve lost out on 800 boxes of strawberries per acre, and with 20 acres, that’s a loss of 160,000 pounds of strawberries.

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“While we have some ripe strawberries, they are few and far between, so we actually had to postpone this year’s season,” said Michelle Castellano, owner and operator of the family-owned farm Mellano Farm Stand.

Just north in Oceanside, it’s a similar story.

They are also having to delay the opening of their U-Pick season.

“Those are still white and growing they need a couple of more weeks,” said Casetellano while pointing to some of the strawberries, still awaiting their full color.

“This is kind of a nuance, as farmers we have to deal with mother nature and we appreciate what she gives us,” said Castellano, who is awaiting the warmer days ahead.

“I have a feeling we are about to get into good weather and it’ll straighten out some and we’ll make the most of it and that’s farming,” Ukegawa said.

Carlsbad Strawberry Company recently opened its stand for fresh strawberries, but both Mellano Farm Stand and Carlsbad Strawberry Company both aim to open their U-Pick farms within the next few weeks.

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