BERRIES SURVIVE, REIGN ON EASTER.

Byline: Amy Raisin Staff Writer

OXNARD - Those who sit down for brunch today and find strawberries on the table might not know just what local growers went through last week to bring fresh, sweet fruit to market.

At the start of prime picking season, three inches of rain in Ventura County left growers concerned about whether the downpour would damage crops - days before Easter weekend, a popular time for strawberries.

``It's been pretty hectic the last few days - it's a speed bump,'' said strawberry grower Mike Conroy, owner of Conroy Farms in Oxnard. ``But cold rain is the silver lining to a gray cloud.''

The cold weather that accompanied last Tuesday's three inches of rain acted as refrigeration for the berries, rather than turning some of the fruit to mush as humid rain tends to do, Conroy said.

Conroy said it is important to get out in the fields after rain and clean the berries, discarding the ones that were scarred by the rain or have started to mold.

With more than 7,500 acres of strawberries in Ventura County, the work of cleaning and picking the berries is no small task.

Conroy Farms grows about 150 acres annually and with a yield of about 35 tons of fruit to every acre - fruit that must be hand-picked, unlike a crop of corn - Conroy said it takes a lot of hands.

``During the peak time we have about 325 people out there. It's a very labor-intensive crop,'' he said.

Strawberries are the county's No. 2 crop, behind lemons, with a gross intake of $176 million on 5,776 acres harvested in the 1998 season, the most recent figures available from the Ventura County Agricultural Commissioner's Office.

The county, and others in the state, produces the bulk of the nation's strawberries.

Dominique Jordan, a communications specialist for the California Strawberry Commission, said 83 percent of the nation's strawberries come from California.

``With over 7,500 acres (in Ventura County) and about 2.5 workers per acre, that's about 18,000 jobs,'' she said.

With so much of the fruit coming from a West Coast state, the berries must be exceptional to survive the truck hauls back East, Conroy said.

``In order to survive that four-to-five-day truck ride, it's got to be good fruit,'' he said. ``We're just going into our peak production.''

Optimum weather for strawberries during peak production isn't much different from the kind that brings people to Southern California, according to Rex Laird, executive director of the Ventura County Farm Bureau.

``A little coastal fog in the morning that burns off, with temperatures in the high 60s to low 70s, and lots of sunshine,'' Laird said. ``Warm-and-humid after cold weather is the worst possible scenario.''

With about five weeks of prime picking left for fresh strawberries, growers are hoping last week's strong showers that damaged some of their ripest berries are behind them.

Regardless of how mother nature treats the farmers, Laird said the cycle dies down as summer arrives.

``The plants start to run out of gas around June. But strawberries and flowers are holiday-driven - Easter's a big time for berries.''

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3 photos

Photo:

(1 -- color -- ran in Conejo and Simi editions only) A strawberry picker works at Conroy Farms, a major grower located in Oxnard. Weather has been good for the crop.

(2 -- color in Conejo and Simi editions only) Berto Sanchez aligns berry boxes. Strawberries are Ventura County's No 2 crop

(3 -- color in Conejo and Simi editions only) Strawberry pickers in Oxnard wait to get their boxes counted. Conroy Farms grows some 150 acres annually, with a yield of about 35 tons of fruit per acre.

Joe Binoya/Special to the Daily News