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Easy pickins'
BENTON -- Reese VanPelt let out a dramatic sigh and announced, strawberry picking is hard work. Then with a giggle and a shake of a her brown curls, she added with a grin, "but mostly it's fun.''
At 3, Reese is a pro at picking strawberries from the field owned by her grandparents, Cameron and Cathy Beggs. She offers tips and points out the berries she thinks will be best.
Watching his granddaughter skip along the rows, Beggs said that is an experience he hopes to bring to more and more families.
When Beggs began his strawberry growing operation over 10 years ago, it was then primarily an in-house operation. He and his workers picked the berries for sale to area customers from their store, Beggs Berry World, near Benton.
Today, he is continuing this part of the business, located just off Interstate 55, while opening up the three and a half acres to those who want to choose their own berries. It is a family activity, according to Beggs, that is fun and can also save money.
This year the strawberry crop is one of his best, he said.
Mother Nature has taken her toll on the crop in the past. However, Beggs said, they have used some new techniques, including special covers, to withstand the last year's cold winter nights and early spring temperature drops.
The new techniques speed up the maturity of the berries; this year they came ready approximately a week to 10 days early, according to Beggs. The berries planted by the Beggs are an annual crop, developed expressly for his special cultivation techniques. Each September the crop is replanted to be ready for harvest beginning the next April through May.
Ideally each plant will yield a pound of strawberries over the season. With some 10,000 plants per acre, Beggs is hoping this year's harvest will be bountiful.
Opening the fields up to the public as well as keeping his own picking business has worked well, the owner said.
"It is really easy to pick our berries," Beggs said. Each picker is provided with a cardboard box fitted inside a carrier, then heads out among the long rows of berries, situated along raised rows, covered with weed barriers.
He suggests they look for really full, red berries. And Beggs encourages sampling while they pick.
"We are looking at the next generation of strawberry eaters. We want them to eat all they can stand while picking," he said.
Those who do sample will be able to tell a difference from store-bought strawberries, which must be picked green when shipped across the country. Berries that ripen on the vine, he said, will have the maximum amount of sugar, making them sweeter.
Once the box is filled with strawberries, it's removed from the carrier and weighed to determine the cost.
"People usually pick way more than they intended because they are having so much fun," he said.
On warm spring days, Beggs said most people prefer to do their picking early in the morning. Any day, he added, the public is welcome from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m to search for the best of the berries.
Those picked by the Beggs and their crew are packaged for sale immediately. These containers draw their fans, too.
"We work for the wow-factor. We like to hear from our customers that our berries are the best they have ever had," he said.
Jim Barr of Benton, who was picking up two boxes of strawberries, said the Beggs berries are his family's favorite. "First because they are good and second, we live in Benton, so they are close, but mostly because they are good."