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News Release Distributed 04/18/08
Typically grown in southeastern Louisiana, strawberries are flourishing in Madison Parish at Grady’s Garden, said R.L. Frazier, LSU AgCenter county agent.
He is helping Lynne Grady with her crop on her farm 12 miles south of Tallulah on Highway 65. A tornado swept through on April 4, bruising only some of the strawberries that make up one acre of the six-acre operation, she said.
Grady has also planted watermelons, potatoes, tomatoes, okra, onions, figs, peaches, cantaloupe, corn and sweet potatoes.
“They agreed to try the Puerto Rican variety of sweet potatoes,” Frazier said. “It is older and not grown for big-scale production any more.”
“I holler like a panther when I need something, and they respond,” Grady said of the LSU AgCenter and its experts.
“This is cotton, corn and soybean country, so growing strawberries is unique up here,” Frazier said. “They are brave enough to do it and carve out a little niche market here. It is part of my responsibility to work with all-size producers.”
Frazier is aware of only four or five other strawberry producers in northeastern Louisiana. More than 80 growers produce about 500 acres of strawberries in the state. More than 400 of these acres are in Tangipahoa Parish, which is in southeastern Louisiana. Strawberries had a gross farm value of more than $16 million in 2007, according to LSU AgCenter economist John Westra.
Grady’s strawberries were planted in October and are being harvested in April. Grady sold 1,669 flats last year, her second strawberry season.
Ten thousand plants on a half-acre were planted the first year, 14,000 on a little more than an acre the second year, and 19,000 on a little more than an acre this season. Grady has three workers to help with the strawberries.
“Strawberries are labor-intensive,” Frazier said. “It is all hand labor.”
Grady also sells local honey and jelly, including muscadine, plum, strawberry, blueberry and mayhaw.
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Contact: R.L. Frazier at (318) 574-2465, or rfrazier@agcenter.lsu.edu
Writer: Mary Ann Van Osdell at (318) 741-7430, ext. 1104, or mvanosdell@agcenter.lsu.edu