DINWIDDIE COUNTY, Va. -- Strawberry season has returned to Virginia and the results are a pleasant surprise for strawberry farmer Todd Adams.
“Nineteen degrees and windy doesn’t really bode well for strawberries, but they survived and made it and they look pretty good.” said Adams, who runs Adams Acres in Dinwiddie.
This season’s strawberry crop was in jeopardy after an early warm up this winter, then a refreeze after that. Adams said they had a lot of frost early on, but he put covers on the strawberries to help them last longer.
"They did pretty well under the covers,” he said.
Adams said they're very surprised by the crop so far and they only lost a few plants leading up to the season.
Todd Adams
The strawberry farmer said this year’s picking season actually arrived a few days earlier than expected.
Adams said picking season should last between five and six weeks, depending on the weather and how hot the temperature gets.
If you want the biggest strawberries, Adams said now is the best time to go picking as the first bloom tend to produce the biggest fruits.
If you need help finding the perfect place to take your family to pick strawberries, the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services maintains a database of Virginia pick-your-own strawberry fields and farmers’ markets. You can find that list here.
