Apr. 29--The berries are red, sweet and juicy at Jim Sae Chao's strawberry patch tucked next to Bugni Bros. Hardware in Pumpkin Center alongside Taft Highway, where the cars roar and kick up the dust as they speed past.
The days are long -- but sweet, too -- for Chao, who came to the United States from Thailand four years ago and is in his second year growing berries within sight of the stuccoed houses of ever-encroaching southwest Bakersfield.
Chao rises at 4 a.m. to go to work at the three-acre patch he leases on Taft Highway and another acre-plus he leases on Panama Lane. Days can stretch to 7:30 p.m., as the picking season for strawberries is brief in Kern County. Chao prepared his land and planted his strawberries late last summer and began picking berries April 3. He expects that the season will be over in an additional six weeks.
"I like to work hard," Chao, 25, said, standing in his field where strawberries hang like heart-shaped jewels on plastic-covered mounded rows of ruffled green strawberry plants. "When I came to this country, I was happy. Every day I'm happy. This is the country I love."
Chao, whose family is Chinese but who was born in Laos and later lived in Thailand, is one of a handful of Southeast Asian immigrants who are growing strawberries in small plots around Bakersfield. You can spot the long, plastic-covered rows of strawberries scattered here and there, typically on the outskirts of Bakersfield.
Although strawberries aren't grown much in Kern County -- a handful of acres is all -- Hodge Black, director of the University of California Cooperative Extension, said the soft berries have been grown periodically in the area for 35 to 40 years.
Kern County's strawberry acreage is barely a blip on the screen, compared with the thousands of acres of cotton, nuts and treefruit farmers grow. Commercial strawberry acreage is so small that it's lumped among miscellaneous crops tallied by the agriculture commissioner. By contrast, coastal strawberry powerhouse Ventura County will harvest about 4,000 acres of strawberries this year to be shipped across the United States and Canada.
Locally, signs painted, "Fresh Strawberries," point drivers to the wooden stands where the fruit is sorted into familiar green plastic baskets and sold in flats of 12 or half-flats of six baskets.
Jim Sae Chao has strawberry stands on Taft Highway and Panama Lane. You'll find other growers' plots at locations including Rosedale Highway near Heath Road, on Weedpatch Highway south of Redbank Road and on East Brundage Lane near Oswell Street.
Price for a half flat of strawberries is $5 and up; full flats are about $10. Discounts are often given by the farmer if you buy in quantity.
The berries being grown in the Bakersfield area are of the Chandler variety, a fruit with soft texture and a true strawberry flavor. The strawberries are highly perishable and won't last but a couple of days in the refrigerator. The Chandler has been the standard strawberry among growers for 10 years, although coastal commercial growers are adding the newer Camarosa berry to their fields.
Jim Sae Chao started in the strawberry business as a picker for his nephew in Tulare County when he came to the United States four years ago. He's in business for himself now, paying others to pick and sort berries. He likes the freedom of being his own boss, of owning his own family business.
Chao and his wife live with their four young children in Tulare County. He regularly commutes between his Bakersfield plots and home.
"I try to do the best I can," he said, leaning over to pick a weed that's sprouted among his berries. "I try to work hard, support my family. And be nice to everybody, if I can."
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