HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY, Fla. — If you look out at the field at Parkesdale Farms in Hillsborough County, you’ll see a sea of red berries growing strong.
“With the prolonged cold, the quality of the fruit is amazing right now,” said farm manager and VP Matt Parke. “It’s amazing.”
ABC Action News first caught up with Parke earlier this month about cold impacts on strawberries.
On Thursday, he said the strawberries are doing fine.
“The sugar content in the berries is extremely high,” said Parke. “The berries are really firm because of the cold weather.”
Freezes are not good for them, but Parke said if they can keep the overnights around 50s to upper 40s and daytime highs of 60 to 70, that’s prime-time picking weather.
“Other than not picking a bunch, because we have a lot on the bush, it just slows them down from ripening, so when we get a little bit of warm weather, it’s going to really open up,” said Parke.
Kenneth Parker, the Executive Director of the Florida Strawberry Growers Association, said, fortunately, it hasn’t been cold enough to really hurt the strawberries at all.
“The cold has slowed down the production, but that in itself is not all that bad,” said Parker. “We’re still picking strawberries, and the berries are there. They’re still coming, but the volumes are off a little bit to historical averages, but the quality is unbelievable.”
With the Florida Strawberry Festival around the corner, Parker, who’s also on the Festival’s board, weighed in on what fans can expect this year.
“Fortunately, we are going to have an abundance of berries, and they're going to be good," said Parker.
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