Chilly weather delays harvest, cancels second stand opening

Hi all,

For the moment I’m using my new old way of sending “Berry Updates”. I’m using my new version of Outlook and manually managing the contacts list. I’m still working on the sonic.net list server which will ultimately save me time, but I’m willing to scrap the project if it becomes too difficult to launch properly. Hang in there with me gang J

With that said…… What’s up with the darned frost this year??? I am very, very sad to report we have lost about 70% of our existing blossoms and small pea size fruit to the extreme cold. The field was white with blossoms and we are sick about losing so much of our opening season crop. This forces us to scrap the opening of our second stand this year on Ely Rd. Now we wait out Ma Nature. Today was also very cold and again potentially damaging. I can’t bear to step foot in the field. It is what it is. Every year we take a risk with Mother Nature. Last year she was EXTREMELY kind. This year…. cold and nasty. The frozen blossoms will affect our harvest in about 3 weeks. We will also see more alien type berries (weird shapes). On the bright side…. the berries will continue to blossom and fruit throughout the season. All of our crop is not lost. If the weather turns nice but stays cool thru the summer, we may have berries in late June and July. All bets are off this year!

We, along with other strawberry growers, are 2 weeks behind schedule. We had planned to open on 4/26 but…. It looks more like somewhere between May 3^rd and 9^th. I’m keeping my fingers crossed for pleasant, mild weather to allow us to harvest in time for Mother’s Day weekend. Stay tuned!

Cheers!

Sally Strawberry

Carstensen Farms

490 Casa Grande Rd, Petaluma (across from Casa Grande High School)

Cheers!

Sally Strawberry

Carstensen Farms

Hours:

Casa Grande location 490 Casa Grande Rd (across from Casa Grande High School)

Opening Day thru June 17 ...... Open daily 10 - 6, closed Tues

June 18 thru July 31 ...... Open 12 - 3 W, F, Sn only (additional closed days possible)

Aug 1 thru Sept 1 ..... Open daily 12 - 6, closed Tues, Thurs

Sept 2 to end of season ...... as available between transplanting

NEW

Ely Rd. location 484 Ely Rd. N.

Opening Day thru June 17 ...... Open M, Th, F 1 - 6, and Sat, Sun 11 - 6 closed Tues & Wed (hours different than Casa)

June 18 thru July 31 ...... CLOSED

Aug 1 thru Sept 1 ..... Open M, F 1 - 6 and Sat, Sun 11 - 6 closed Tues, Wed, Thurs (hours different than Casa)

Sept 2 - end of season ...... CLOSED