For a few weeks, a farmer's blueberry crop will garner higher prices because of a seasonal hole in world markets.
By LETITIA STEIN
Published April 30, 2004
LITHIA - Farmer Bret Boston surveys the blueberries blooming in indigo clusters at Blue Oak Farms. He sees a rainbow of riches: green cash, bronze yen, British pound sterling.
The image soon will fade. For a few weeks, blueberries harvested in west-central Florida have a monopoly on the world's produce market. And they are worth their weight in gold, almost.
Boston's blueberries will sell everywhere from the Kash n' Karry down the street from his Lithia farm to Britain and Japan. By early May, farmers in North Florida begin picking, and the season migrates north all summer to Maine and British Columbia.
For Boston, who raised woody ornamentals for years and still brokers them in the off-season, growing blueberries defies what he learned about farming at the University of Florida.
A graduate of Brandon High, Boston, 45, studied in Gainesville under a professor trying to engineer new blueberry breeds. Among the lessons: Blueberries could not grow in this region's warmer climate.
Blueberries require 300 to 500 hours in temperatures below 45 degrees Fahrenheit to set the bloom, as farmers call the sensitive period between white, bonnet-shaped blossoms appearing on the branches and the green berries ripening into shades of violet.
But his professor and other scientists changed the rules of Mother Nature, as Boston later learned in a conversation with a friend raising a new variety of blueberries in Plant City.
"He told me how much money he was making," he said, recalling the answer with a laugh. "And I thought, "What's the hitch?"'
Nothing that smart farming - and a wealth of engineered blueberry varieties with names like gulf coast, star, emerald and sapphire - could not overcome.
Even so, blueberries remain finicky plants, preferring acidic soil and lots of water that does not puddle around their roots. Boston found blueberries thrived when planted in expensive pine bark on top of soil.
He experimented for several years before planting the first field almost a decade ago. He picked them himself, sorting the blueberries in his driveway and packing them into plastic tubs.
As his farm grew, he began to hire farm workers to pick. He bought a pick trailer, a green cart with folding grading tables that separate the berries and dump them into plastic flats.
He and friends, Joe and Ryan Keel, opened their own packing facility in Plant City, called Kee-Bo after their last names. They sell in groceries under the Sunny Ridge and Driscoll labels.
In recent years, the number of blueberry farms in east Hillsborough has grown dramatically as more farmers discover the lucrative window. Blueberries can sell from $24 to $28 per 4-pound packed flat between the end of the Chilean season in late March and early May.
By mid May, prices slide to $12 to $14 as South Georgia and North Carolina blueberry farms start picking their crop.
"Florida has a unique window," said Boston, who will harvest about 5,000 flats during the short season at his 4-acre farm. And the crop is high density, meaning that "you don't have to have 500 acres to make money," he said.
This summer, Boston plans to add another 10 acres of blueberries. He predicted that blueberries will take over the east Hillsborough citrus industry, which has suffered from years of falling prices and a withering disease.
"When the corporate farms get into it, then maybe I'll retire," he said.
WHAT: Blueberries harvested for wholesale until early May. U-pick at end of season. In mid May, look for U-pick signs on Lithia-Pinecrest Road and State Road 39.
How do you know when to pick? Color. The berries have to be blue.
From field to grocery: The best picking days are mild and not too humid. At the packing plant, plastic lugs, trays that hold 7 to 8 pounds, are stored in 60 degree coolers until they are sorted into plastic tubs. Then they are cooled to 40 degrees or lower until brokers can ship to stores.
Fast food: Within 48 hours, blueberries from Lithia can land on a shelf in Tokyo or England.
