Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, June 3, 1990 TAG: 9006040180
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: MADELYN ROSENBERG NEW RIVER VALLEY BUREAU
DATELINE: ALUM RIDGE LENGTH: Long
"One lady first came here in her station wagon loaded with these itty bitty kids," said Sutherland, who has turned three acres of his remote farm into a pick-your-own operation. "She's a grandmother now. I've got third-generation pickers, I guess, and the lady - she's still a-comin'."
There are others.
A man from Bluefield, W.Va., calls at the beginning of each season to find out when the strawberries are ripe for the picking.
And some families from as far away as North Carolina make the yearly trip to Sutherland's farm - known to people around here simply as "The Strawberry Farm."
"Word gets around," Sutherland said. It has to - his farm isn't an easy one to find even if you're looking for it.
"People call and I give them directions," Sutherland said. "Some of them have been coming so long it's just like coming home."
Located just off of gravelly Virginia 601 in Floyd County, Sutherland's long driveway snakes upward through tall rows of pines trees dotted with sprigs of Queen Anne's lace and clusters of rhododendrons.
There are times, Sutherland said, when that driveway is double-parked with cars while the drivers pick berries in early morning. Some come before dawn, when Sutherland and Gene Dixon, who's helped tend the berries for 16 years, are still asleep.
Sutherland's strawberry business started out small behind his white farmhouse. The patch turned out well, and now it's a 3-acre operation.
The farmer used to raise cattle, too, but that's been passed to his son. "I'm 71 years old," Sutherland said. "I don't want a crop that moves."
Sutherland's five children used to pick berries and sell them for $1 a gallon. "But now my kids are grown, so people pick their own."
The price has risen some in 30 years, but it's still an affordable $1.80 per gallon.
Preferred customers - those who've visited the farm for 20 years or so - get a gallon for free, Sutherland said. And he never charges a person over 90. "I like to see a customer grin," Sutherland said in a long Southern drawl that Dixon said reminds him of Andy Griffith.
There were only a few pickers at the strawberry farm early this week, when rain and clouds made picking a muddy business.
But Roman Slaughter, who has picked here for 15 years, knelt in the dirt with plastic bags wrapped around his legs, picking six gallons. "These are good berries," said Slaughter, who likes them plain.
Sutherland also isn't much for pies, but he makes a mean batch of strawberry preserves. "It's an old mountain recipe," he said. "You only do a few at a time - that's the old mountain way."
Sutherland likes doing things "the mountain way." Playing music, for instance. Berry season will find him seated at a 90-year-old piano now and again playing "In the Pines" or "Little Brown Jug." Sometimes berry pickers will hear his music and wander in, joining him in a song or two. Those who know him ask him to play.
"They'll dance or flatfoot. Sometimes they'll sing hymns."
Dixon said one strawberry picker made a tape of Sutherland's music and his wife would complain when he played it - at 2 a.m. "I'm a piano-playin', strawberry raisin' son-of-a-gun," Sutherland said.
Sutherland also used to be a worrier when it came to his crops, but he said when he turned 70, that all changed. "It used to be I'd be in a cold sweat," he said. "But there ain't no use to it."
Still, there are a lot of things to contend with.
Like rain. Too much rain is bad for the crops, and so is too little. The right amount could be good for the crops, but if it falls at the wrong time, it could be bad for the pickers.
Then there are the deer, who take an occasional romp through the strawberries. But Sutherland thinks he's got that problem licked.
He rigged a radio to a horse trailer and parked it near the field. Every now and then he blares a little music toward his berries and the deer who eat them.
"I keep it on K92," he said. "They holler a lot on that station."
The berry season is short - from three to five weeks, Sutherland said. The first week ends today.
In those few weeks, Sutherland's farm will yield anywhere from 3,000 to 8,000 gallons of berries, weather depending. There was too much rain last year and the crop wasn't its best. "I only grow good berries and great berries," Sutherland said. "Last year's were good."
This season, Sutherland's crossing his fingers and hoping for sun so pickers can take their time and heap their pails.
"You don't know anyone who has any pull with the weather, do you?" he asked, squinting at the sky.
PICK YOUR OWN:\
Sutherland's Strawberry Farm, off Virginia 640 in Alum Ridge, sunup to sundown. $1.80 a gallon.\ Crow's Nest Farm, Virginia 654, Prices Fork; 9 a.m.-5 p.m. 65 cents a pound.\ Sinkland Farms, Virginia 8 south of Christiansburg, 7:30 a.m. until dark (1 p.m. until dark Sundays). 65 cents a pound.
by CNB