#strawberry-picking

#strawberry-picking

About 30 minutes into my job as a picker, the strawberry fairy left her first gift. On one of the beds of berries that seemed to stretch forever into the Santa Maria marine layer, Elvia Lopez had laid a little bundle of picked fruit.

A disease called Neopestalotiopsis, coupled with wet and warm climate, has led to the closure of many pick-your-own strawberry farms in Washington.