THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, May 10, 1995 TAG: 9505090098
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 08 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MARY REID BARROW, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 125 lines
When the hailstorm hit Henley Farm on Charity Neck Road at mid-afternoon recently, the sky got so dark, Barbara Henley couldn't see out of her windows at all.
``It was a ferocious storm,'' she said, ``about as bad as I've ever seen it.''
Hailstones were as big as marbles. There also was a lot of rain and wind, she added. The wind blew down a couple of farm buildings along with several trees and big limbs. But Henley is hoping a good portion of the strawberry crop may have come through unscathed.
``I'm sure we'll lose some percentage,'' she said. ``We were on the fringes of the storm but our fields are spread around and some were more vulnerable than others.''
B.T. Tatem, who grows strawberries on Gum Bridge Road, lost several farm sheds in the storm. The wind was so strong ``it pulled up 20-foot poles that were four feet in the ground and threw them around like they were bean poles,'' he said. Tatem also lost a three-acre field of strawberries, but he thinks another field nearby might have been saved.
Two other strawberry growers down the road from Tatem weren't so lucky. Dean Davis, also on Gum Bridge, and Douglas Munden on Princess Anne Road might as well have been wiped out by the relentless hail.
Their fragile, green strawberry plants are beaten down to the ground with only an occasional valiant stem opening a bloom to the sun. The pelting of the icy hail carved big pock marks, some so deep they look like worm holes, in both ripe and unripe strawberries.
``The ones that are left on the vine are bruised,'' Munden said, ``and many were completely knocked off the vines. It's unbelievable until you see it.''
It was one of those years when the berries were just too pretty to be true, Henley noted. Just before the storm she had driven by Munden's field.
``Douglas' field was white with blooms,'' she said. ``I told Winky (her husband) how pretty it was and then it was gone.''
Davis, who's been growing strawberries here for close to 30 years, also was looking forward to a successful season. He had 57,000 more strawberry plants this year than last and was raising them organically.
``I had the prettiest plants I had ever had and in five minutes I lost them all,'' Davis said. ``The hail was an inch deep. The whole field looked like snow.''
Davis is trying to turn the disaster into something positive. Many of the berries, he said, are not pretty enough to sell, but still can be used in jams and jellies. So last weekend he opened his fields to pick-your-own berry pickers, free of charge.
Davis figures he might help out his longtime customers and it will help him, too. If the berries are picked, he said, they won't rot on the ground. Rotten berries would ruin the fields if there were any chance for a second crop of strawberries on plants that recover from the hail's assault.
Last weekend, folks took Davis up on his offer in the Good Things To Eat section of the newspaper classified ads. ``A lot of people turned out,'' he said. ``Hundreds of people.''
The picking went so well that he will open again from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. this Friday, Saturday and Sunday. He said, ``No scales, no containers, no children. Pick all you want, free.''
When the hailstorm hit Henley Farm on Charity Neck Road at mid-afternoon recently, the sky got so dark, Barbara Henley couldn't see out of her windows at all.
``It was a ferocious storm,'' she said, ``about as bad as I've ever seen it.''
Hailstones were as big as marbles. There also was a lot of rain and wind, she added. The wind blew down a couple of farm buildings along with several trees and big limbs. But Henley is hoping a good portion of the strawberry crop may have come through unscathed.
``I'm sure we'll lose some percentage,'' she said. ``We were on the fringes of the storm but our fields are spread around and some were more vulnerable than others.''
B.T. Tatem, who grows strawberries on Gum Bridge Road, lost several farm sheds in the storm. The wind was so strong ``it pulled up 20-foot poles that were four feet in the ground and threw them around like they were bean poles,'' he said. Tatem also lost a three-acre field of strawberries, but he thinks another field nearby might have been saved.
Two other strawberry growers down the road from Tatem weren't so lucky. Dean Davis, also on Gum Bridge, and Douglas Munden on Princess Anne Road might as well have been wiped out by the relentless hail.
Their fragile, green strawberry plants are beaten down to the ground with only an occasional valiant stem opening a bloom to the sun. The pelting of the icy hail carved big pock marks, some so deep they look like worm holes, in both ripe and unripe strawberries.
``The ones that are left on the vine are bruised,'' Munden said, ``and many were completely knocked off the vines. It's unbelievable until you see it.''
It was one of those years when the berries were just too pretty to be true, Henley noted. Just before the storm she had driven by Munden's field.
``Douglas' field was white with blooms,'' she said. ``I told Winky (her husband) how pretty it was and then it was gone.''
Davis, who's been growing strawberries here for close to 30 years, also was looking forward to a successful season. He had 57,000 more strawberry plants this year than last and was raising them organically.
``I had the prettiest plants I had ever had and in five minutes I lost them all,'' Davis said. ``The hail was an inch deep. The whole field looked like snow.''
Davis is trying to turn the disaster into something positive. Many of the berries, he said, are not pretty enough to sell, but still can be used in jams and jellies. So last weekend he opened his fields to pick-your-own berry pickers, free of charge.
Davis figures he might help out his longtime customers and it will help him, too. If the berries are picked, he said, they won't rot on the ground. Rotten berries would ruin the fields if there were any chance for a second crop of strawberries on plants that recover from the hail's assault.
Last weekend, folks took Davis up on his offer in the Good Things To Eat section of the newspaper classified ads. ``A lot of people turned out,'' he said. ``Hundreds of people.''
The picking went so well that he will open again from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. this Friday, Saturday and Sunday. He said, ``No scales, no containers, no children. Pick all you want, free.'' ILLUSTRATION: Photos
``The ones that are left on the vine are bruised, and many were
completely knocked off the vines. It's unbelievable until you see
it.''
- Douglas Munden
``I had the prettiest plants I had ever had and in five minutes I
lost them all. The hail was an inch deep. The whole field looked
like snow.''
- Dean Davis
by CNB