Rome Strawberry Patch Celebrates Twenty Years
Although the business is weather dependent, Vaughn anticipates the picking will start around June 25 (it lasts two and a half to three weeks). When it does, the Patch is ready . . . not only because the farm draws on twenty years of business establishment and a very satisfied clientele, but because for the second year now Rome Strawberry Patch has a new growing system. One of only three plasticulture growers in the state, Vaughn is a convert to biological farming. "I came alive understanding that I have a partnership with the soil," he describes of his switch from conventional growing methods. The premise in biological farming is to husband the underground microbes to work symbiotically with the plants. In other words the microbes and plants feed each other (and in turn are fed by the rotation crops that are plowed under every two years). Significantly, biological farming cuts back on the use of pesticides and fertilizer. Why Rome Strawberry Patch changed planting methods is simple to understand. The strawberry yield was declining from its normal 8,000 quarts per acre. With the new system Vaughn expects 13,000 quarts per acre, and the yield could go as high as 18,000. Plasticulture, which dates to the late eighties, involves planting double rows on a raised bed covered with plastic (which warms the soil in early spring) and watered by a drip tube underneath. One machine, engineered and invented by the Amish, does it all. Vaughn also uses other innovative techniques to nurture his crop. When frost is predicted, he covers the fields with white plastic. When it's too hot he runs a sprinkler irrigation system for twenty minutes to cool the fruit and the field. And, instead of spraying against the strawberry enemy, the two-spotted spider mite, he releases predator insects to destroy them. He does, however, feed the plants food-grade fertilizer to help them "bulk up."
The Rome Strawberry Patch is located on Watson Pond Road, off Route 27. Hours are 7:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. Please call
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"It's an exciting place when we're busy," explains Vaughn Rasar, owner of the Rome Strawberry Patch. "It's very friendly here. That's what people like."
On a beautiful summer day, when the Rome Strawberry Patch is rich in ripe strawberries and up to three hundred happy pickers are enjoying both the outing and the more-than-occasional sample, the science of farming may not be important. But when they sit down to eat their bounty on ice cream, shortcake, cereal, or yoghurt; crushed; or dipped in chocolate . . . aah, that's when all that plant care counts.