Not the Berries

Orange County strawberry growers got clobbered by the recent rains, and nature shows no signs of letting up.

“It’s been horrible,” said A.G. Kawamura, an Irvine grower.

Given the El Nino threat, growers had been preparing fields for weeks and therefore suffered less damage than they might have. But little, Kawamura said, can be done to stave off the effects of 9 1/2 inches of rain in two days, the amount Irvine recorded two weekends ago.

Luckily, the Santa Ana winds showed up to help dry things out. But they were a bit too strong and ripped apart plastic on the fields, which in turn knocked around the young blossoms.

“A lot of us had an awful lot of bloom out,” Kawamura said. “We’re going to get some ugly cat-faced fruit, all deformed and gnarly.”

Growers--and shoppers--will know in about a month how they fared. A scarcity of good-looking berries will mean higher prices for the fresh fruit.

Martha Groves can be reached by fax at (213) 473-2480 or by e-mail at [email protected]