In pursuit of a better berry

Researchers hope to extend N.C. season

North Carolina strawberries have always been a fleeting luxury of spring.

While their California counterparts sit on grocery store shelves year-round, North Carolina's deep red berries make their appearance for just six weeks a year. And only people who venture to farms or open-air markets are likely to find them.

The state's strawberry industry is trying to change that. Strawberry promoters have visions of a second strawberry season in fall. Of berries grown in tunnels. Of plants that repel pests and stave off the rot that makes many local berries mushy within a day or two of picking.

They are searching for the elusive berry that will turn North Carolina strawberries into a national industry, rather than a novelty of roadside stands.

"If you find it, you tell me what it is," said Charles Tart, a Harnett County strawberry grower who experiments with new strawberry varieties every year. "I've tried everything."

A better berry could have big economic consequences for North Carolina farmers.

Strawberries are more lucrative than just about any other crop North Carolina farmers grow, bringing in an average of $1,500 an acre, according to N.C. State University's Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics.

That's comparable with tobacco in its heyday, which brought farmers between $1,000 and $3,000 an acre before the government stopped propping up the price last year. It's a far cry from traditional row crops such as corn and soybeans, which usually bring farmers less than $50 an acre.

But with such a limited market, only a few farmers can reap the profits. There are about 1,600 acres of strawberries in North Carolina.

That's because the state's two standard strawberry varieties -- Chandler, a small, sweet, quick-rotting berry that many connoisseurs swear by, and Camarosa, a larger, sturdier berry -- simply don't make the grade in the national market, even if they do taste good.

In today's world, most shoppers expect a continuous supply of uniform produce, even if it has to be shipped in from across the world. Shelf life and cheap prices often trump flavor.

Appearance trumps taste

California farmers have figured out how to grow gigantic berries that stay firm for weeks. What's more, they grow them cheaply and harvest them nearly year-round.

Never mind if they are hard and white in the centers, and taste only faintly of strawberry. They have become the strawberries that the vast majority of people eat.

"We have at least a generation of Americans who have no earthly idea what a good strawberry tastes like," said Jim Ballington, an NCSU researcher and the state strawberry breeder. "Shelf life is the only thing that matters."

Though Ballington works with a meager research budget of about $7,000, he says he knows North Carolina farmers can do better. Even if they can't beat California, they could extend their season enough that they would have a fighting chance at breaking into the grocery store market.

But after decades of cross-breeding strawberries, growing them on test plots and tasting them -- he still hasn't found the perfect berry.

There have been so many grand ideas, so many hopes -- and so many disappointments.

NCSU researchers spent years studying the possibility of growing strawberries year-round in greenhouses, avoiding the vagaries of the weather. In the end, they concluded it was too costly, Ballington said.

Ballington has tested hundreds of varieties and created hundreds more of his own experimental varieties. None has been the savior he hoped for.

Bish, a variety he started encouraging growers to plant in 2003, succumbed to spider mites. The Gemstar produced big, tasty, sturdy fruit but was too orange to be appealing to most shoppers. The Delmarvel produced the most delicious strawberry he had ever tasted, but it yielded so little fruit that a farmer would go broke trying to farm it.