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posted on July 05, 2007
Competition faced by local growers
The hopeless blight on our strawberries
By: CATHERINE PORTER, ENVIRONMENT REPORTER
Published: July 01, 2007
Source: thestar.comRed-tailed hawks circle overhead as Ron Breckon eases the family van along the rutted dirt road.
The seats behind him have been ripped out. In their place are 69 trays of strawberries, some picked just seconds before.
"I'll have to drive carefully," he says, rolling up the window and cranking the air conditioning. Already, the cabin is dense with the perfume of warm berries. Any hotter and they will melt before he delivers them to the grocery store.
It takes him only 20 minutes – past where the farm fields give way to more subdivisions – to roll into the lot behind Food Basics in Georgetown.
Already in the lot are two 18-wheel tractor-trailers, one finishing a delivery while the other waits its turn.
They are refrigerated, and each has space for at least 20 loads the size of Breckon's.
"Oh Jesus, oh my God – we've got to wait," he says, gripping the wheel tightly. "We've got perishable stuff here. If it's left in the vehicle in the sun, it's going to be roasted."