A relatively dry 2009 proved to be a blessing for the strawberries at Phipps Farm, a “you-pick” berry outfit in Pescadero.
“The more it rains on strawberries, the more it mildews them,” said owner Teresa Phipps, who also grows olallieberries and boysenberries.
Phipps saw so much rain this year that she didn’t have any strawberries to sell, but she said 2009 was a “very good crop” of the fruit due to less rainfall.
That was generally true for Peninsula strawberry farmers, who grew $1.38 million worth of strawberries in 2009 on a combined 29 acres compared to $543,000 in 2008 on 24 acres, according to a recently released crop report on 2009’s harvest.
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