Ann’s “berry” busy with harvest

Ann finds the pickin’ sweet with a Florida strawberry grower who counts on hydroponics.

By Ann Kaiser
Editor

Florida is known for its wonderful winter strawberries—but not all of them grow in dirt! Mary and Tim Hise have 4,000 plants “grounded” in coconut fiber and stacked high in planters in their hydroponic greenhouses near Canaveral Groves.

“Snip only those that are fully ripe—and cut the stems nice and long,” Mary instructs me as we harvest beautiful red strawberries on a sunny, warm day in late November.

The winter season at Hise Farms Berries is underway, and I’ve signed on for a delicious job…

8:00 a.m. »  In their 48- by 30-foot greenhouse, Mary and I grab cardboard flats and needle-nose garden pruners to get started picking. It’s such an interesting setup! The berries grow in 12-inch-square containers that are stacked seven high on vertical pipes.

 “The planters are notched so they interlock at 45-degree angles when stacked,” Mary explains. “This vertical system gives us maximum production in limited space. We can produce five to seven times more fruit than in the same area with plants grown traditionally in soil. We shoot for 5 pounds of berries from each plant—that’s 20,000 pounds from our crop.”

Long-Stemmed Lovelies

She directs me to start at the top of a stack and work down. The planters have a strawberry plant in each corner, and the berries hang over the edge on stems 2 to 3 inches long. “Cut the berry with its long stem,” says Mary. “Customers love the way they look and say they are so beautiful to serve.”

Snip…plop, snip…plop. I catch the gorgeous red strawberries in the flat as I cut them. It’s still early in the season, but already there are several ripe berries (and more immature green ones) on each plant.

“After lunch, we’ll take the berries we pick this morning to a local market that we own with two other small farmers,” Mary notes. “Most of our crop is sold there.”

Ripe All Around

8:30 a.m. » There’s just enough space for one person to work between the rows of towering strawberries. Conveniently, the stacks rotate, so I can turn them to pick all sides. I’ve learned it’s important to turn the individual berries, too. Although a berry may look fully ripe, the backside may not be.           

“Take a peek before you cut it,” Mary cautions. “If you see any orange or white areas, leave it to ripen another day or so.”

As we work, we gently pull out any small green berries sitting in the pot to let them hang over the edge. 

“We get strawberry plug plants from a Canadian grower, and put them into our planters in mid-September,” Mary says. “They start producing in about 8 weeks.”

9:00 a.m. » “Try one,” she offers as we empty the strawberries from the cardboard flats into larger plastic flats. I’ve been patiently waiting for this go-ahead. The big berry I bite into is fresher-than-fresh, juicy and sweet. Truly a treat!

This variety is called Festival and was developed for central Florida production by the University of Florida. “It’s the workhorse of our operation and bears from November to May,” Mary says. “Later in winter, we also harvest Camarosa strawberries, which have a flatter bottom and can get as big as golf balls. Both are great for dipping in chocolate and look extra fancy with their long stems!”

Plumbing Aplomb    

Strung above the rows is a system of 1/8-inch tubes to water and fertilize the stacks. “Tim handles the hydroponics,” Mary says. “He is a master plumber and a real pro when it comes to cutoff valves and flow controls!”

“Tim and our sons Matt, 20, and Jacob, 16, built our first greenhouse from scraps 5 years ago,” she recalls. “We’ve increased production every year since and plan to add a second greenhouse next year.”

9:30 a.m. » I watch Tim mix calcium nitrate and basic nutrients (8-13-32) to fill two large tanks at one end of the greenhouse.

“Strawberries are a member of the rose family and, like roses, require a lot of calcium,” he says. “This clear liquid is injected into the tubes in the correct proportion with water.

“We sprinkle the stacks from the top for about 3 minutes every morning. Water drips down through the pots, with very little excess draining out from the lowest planter onto the ground.”

10:00 a.m. » The greenhouse has heated up to balmy, and the berries’ sweet aroma is heady as we finish up the morning picking!

“We harvest twice a day in midseason, when the plants bear heavily,” Mary says. “There have been nights that we’ve picked 70 pounds of berries after Tim’s spent the day out on plumbing jobs. He finds working the berries really relaxing.

“And, as tired as I might be after a busy day in our home office and around the farm, I get revived out here. We joke that it’s because of all the oxygen the plants give off! Actually, I think there’s some truth to that.”

“Uglies” Are Transformed

10:15 a.m. » We carry full flats to the large shady screened porch at the house to grade the berries. “Pick out any that are not quite perfect,” Mary directs. “I save the ‘uglies’ for making jam and strawberry vinegar.

“I’ve won first place at the county fair with my jelly, and our berries have won Best of Show in competition with all the fruits and vegetables entered.”

10:45 a.m. » Then we label bottles of the fruity red vinegar. It smells and tastes terrific. “The vinegar is wonderful in a vinaigrette dressing for a strawberry spinach salad,” she says. (Use the Recipe Search on our Web site to find variations—substitute strawberry vinegar for cider vinegar.)

Nothing goes to waste here. Even the strawberry tops are fed to the Hises’ mini-farm menagerie of a few chickens, pigs and rabbits.

11 a.m. »   We pack and weigh the top-grade berries in clear plastic clamshell containers. Mary shows me how to arrange the layers attractively, alternating berry and stem ends. Shoppers at the market won’t be able to resist these!

1 p.m. » To market we go. After lunch, we load the fresh-picked berries in coolers, along with cases of vinegar and jam, into Mary’s truck. It’s just a few miles to The Green Marketplace on well-traveled Adamson Road west of Cocoa.

“We are open Tuesdays, Fridays and Saturdays,” Mary says. The market features seasonal produce, sustainably produced farm products, heirloom vegetables and native plants for garden and landscape. In a shady setting, it’s a friendly, low-key place.

Browsing customers ooh and aah as we unload the goodies, congratulating themselves on their timing to buy fresh strawberries.

Mary encourages them to sign up for the market’s E-mail newsletter. “We also host school groups and garden clubs,” she says.

Tasty Family Outing

2:30 p.m. » Back at the farm, we clean up the shaded U-pick area, which will be open Saturday and Sunday. We clip off runners the plants shoot, so the energy goes to the fruit. There will be plenty of ripe berries ready.

The planters here are stacked only five high, making it easy for families to reach.

3:30 p.m. »  In a shaded “hydrogarden” behind the U-pick berries, we gather turnip greens, mustard greens, butter beans and spinach—all growing in pots and planters.

Showy leaf lettuce thrives in a horizontal hydroponic pipe system. We pull out bunches of it, roots and all. “I tell customers to set the roots in a bowl of water in the fridge,” Mary says. “The lettuce will stay fresh for quite some time.”

4:30 p.m. » Before I leave for my flight back to Wisconsin—where snow is predicted—we munch on berries and drink iced tea in the warm afternoon sunshine. While I’m shoveling back home, you bet I’ll be thinking of Mary picking more bountiful berries down south in the Sunshine State! 

Editor’s Note: Editor’s Note: For U-pick dates and hours, send an E-mail to hisefarmsberries@aol.com. To sign up for The Green Marketplace E-newsletter and get directions, click countrywomanmagazine.com/links

Photography by: Pat Jarrell