LUTZ — Barry and Courtney Lawrance initiated a freeze to avoid freeze damage.
Back when “arctic weather” was tormenting the Tampa Bay area, the longtime local farming couple had to figure out how to save their rows and rows of strawberry plants at Weck Farms, a small acreage the Lawrances have operated for four seasons now.
“Like all the farmers,” Courtney said, “we had to freeze the plants to protect the blooms. Yes, there was some damage, but ice protects the bloom, so there will be future strawberries — to do that, you have to protect the bloom.
“Barry had a lot of sleepless nights,” she added with a laugh. “Like keeping an eye on a newborn, he had to turn on the irrigation and make sure the sprinklers were working. It sounds counterintuitive, but it’s like an incubator and protects the berries with a thin layer of ice.”
It’s a good thing the Lawrances worked hard to freeze their crops and came out of the cold snap relatively unscathed. That way, visitors — both local and from afar — can come out on weekends and fill up buckets of strawberries at the Weck Farms U-Pick.
Strawberry season began late last year and runs through late March, right before the annual Strawberry Festival begins. The Lawrances tout it as a fun, family-friendly outing that usually leads to strawberry pies, jams, shortcakes and more.
“It’s actually a common misconception that the Strawberry Festival is the start of strawberry season when it’s actually the end of the season,” Courtney said. “The festival is to celebrate the end of the season, with many not realizing the season begins in late November. The festival is basically showing off all the strawberries from the season.”
Even when strawberry season ends, however, the farming doesn’t stop for the Lawrances. They continue U-Pick with other crops such as broccoli, melons and even sunflowers, which are quite popular from a photogenic standpoint.
“Barry has always been involved with agriculture because he was out there in the orange groves with his grandfather,” said Courtney, who, along with her husband, owns Bearss Groves in Carrollwood but is currently looking for a new tenant to run a market or another concept there. “Agriculture is a vital and necessary way to serve the local community. Connecting people directly to their food source is not only fun for the family but a learning experience as well.
“Growing produce and farming is really Barry’s passion,” she added. “And our boys — it’s wild the amount of strawberries they can consume.”
Visitors who come to Weck Farms are passionate about picking, too. Courtney notes that while most are locals looking for fresh berries, several come from farther afield, looking to avoid the trek to Plant City, where there are a plethora of strawberry fields and farms.
“Some people just don’t want to go all the way out to Plant City sometimes,” Courtney said. “And kids love it. It’s so much fun for anyone, and the amount of support we got from the community after the freeze was great, with some great turnouts on the weekends. We started with orange groves, then peach trees, then cows, and now we have strawberries, and we’ll keep having strawberries in the future.”