In January 2017, I was visiting commercial and research greenhouses in the Netherlands and Germany prior to the start of IPM Essen. At one of them, a Dutch greenhouse research institution, I had the chance to see hydroponic strawberry production for the first time. It was gray, rainy and generally dreary outside, so the tiny pops of red dotting the greenhouse were a welcome sight.

Imagine my excitement when I was told that I would be allowed to sample the fruits! Besides being a little hungry before lunch, I was also looking forward to seeing what a “January-bearing strawberry” (in contrast to the June-bearing or ever-bearing strawberries we eat during the spring and summer here in Ohio) was like. I had never sampled a fresh strawberry mere days after my winter birthday, and was delighted by the idea of local, greenhouse-grown strawberries gracing the tables during the holidays. The tasty treat didn’t disappoint, and the sweet, ripe berry practically melted in my mouth.

But growing strawberries in a greenhouse is no easy feat and not many people are producing them, as shown by current statistics. According to the California Strawberry Commission, 97 percent of the strawberries that are sold in U.S. stores are grown in the fields of California, Florida or Mexico. Not many North American greenhouse growers have ventured into strawberry growing, unlike their berry-growing counterparts in Europe and Asia, which means that locally grown strawberries can be hard to find, even during their normal growing season. During the off-season, finding berries that were grown close to the store is a near-impossible feat.

In this month’s cover story, Produce Grower assistant editor Chris Manning delves into the history of greenhouse-grown strawberries, highlights university research being conducted and talks to growers who have taken the plunge. Immerse yourself in the world of strawberries here.

Did you attend the Produce Marketing Association’s Fresh Summit back in October? If not — or even if you did — don’t miss associate editor Patrick Williams’ coverage of the event, including inspirational advice from a Broadway actor, a football superstar and PMA’s own Cathy Burns.

Lastly, as you prepare for 2019, check out Leslie Halleck’s predictions for produce trends in the coming year. Just don’t be surprised if you’re a little hungry after reading her column.

Happy holidays, and see you next year!

kvarga@gie.net | (216) 393-0290

Twitter: @Karen_GIE

How will people eat in 2019? As a produce grower, I suspect this is one of the most important questions you ask when you plan for the New Year. There are many fascinating trends brewing in the world of food right now, and all of them are good news for you as produce growers. I’ve cherry-picked a few top trends for 2019 that could have a positive impact on your businesses.

Manly meatlessness

Yes, you read that right. Plant-based eating is surging in popularity, but letting go of meat seems particularly hard for you fellas. Meat-eating and manliness are emotionally intertwined in our American culture — but that’s changing. There’s a big push, especially across social media, to showcase vegetarian and vegan eating as an authentically masculine option. “Manly Meatless Mondays” are a thing now. Seriously. Chefs, bloggers and brothers Derek and Chad Sarno, founders of the plant-based food blog Wicked Healthy, are dishing out recipes that ditch the meat for produce-based alternatives with “meaty” flavors. Working with food company TESCO, Derek Sarno is also working to develop many such pre-made vegetarian dishes. Manly veggie meals are marketed as robust and filling. So there you go — marketing produce to men is on the upswing.

Umami

A big part of creating vegetarian or vegan meals with a meaty flavor is umami, which is in with chefs right now. Umami, a pleasant savory flavor often associated with cooked meats, is one of the five basic tastes. How do you achieve umami in meatless meals? Mushrooms. Lots of mushrooms. Mushrooms, and not just your basic ’shrooms, are gaining popularity with chefs and growers. Home cooks are also starting to get a bit more adventurous with mushrooms they’ve never eaten or seen before. Growing mushrooms can be quite profitable if you can create the right growing conditions. Shiitake and Oyster mushrooms currently fetch about $10-15 a pound retail.

Swap it

Along with a rise in plant-based diets is the “swap-it” trend; think swapping flour for cauliflower when making your pizza crust — or ricing your cauliflower in place of real rice. Swapping out the bun for lettuce on your burger. These days you can often order your meat burgers protein-style, which is code for no bread but swap it for lettuce. Heck, I live in meat-central Texas and now at traditional Tex-Mex joints I can even order vegetarian avocado wraps, wrapped in lettuce instead of tortillas (complete with avocado slices, jicama, carrots, and cilantro — no filling tortillas — brilliant!). Think about opportunities you have with your packaging to offer up swap-it suggestions. Someone should breed a compact, yet dense variety of romaine lettuce that can stand up to a meat patty (or whatever other sandwich filling you want) and call it “Hold the Bun.” You’re welcome.

Floral & herbal flavors

Edible flowers aren’t just the garnish anymore — they’re being featured as the foundational flavor of many food items. Flower flavors of lavender, rose and elderflower look to feature heaviest as primary flavors in all sorts of foods, such as yogurt, soft drinks, cookies and ice cream, and, of course, cocktails. Look for pungent herbs such as lemongrass and rosemary to also see an uptick in popularity.

Consumers are also drinking more tea, and experimenting with making their own tea, both from the real tea plant (Camellia sinensis) and other plants for herbal teas. If we’re selling prepackaged fresh herb cuts for cooking, why not consider doing the same marketed for steeping in fresh homemade teas?

Grow wet

Hydroponically grown produce is seeing a big push. This coincides with a big influx of ever-evolving grow lighting technology that’s helping greenhouse growers produce more food under glass. Salad greens and herbs are of course most predominant, but fruiting crops such as tomatoes, peppers, and strawberries grown hydroponically are on the rise and quality is improving; as is consumer perception of hydroponically grown produce.

Shrink it

The popularity of mini-fruits and veggies isn’t slowing down. Patio-sized edible plants have been gaining momentum in the gardening world for the past several years. More home gardeners are also looking for compact varieties they can grow indoors. Smaller fruits have come with the compact plant varieties and these snack-sized edibles are becoming more popular in the grocery store. Mini-everything is in, from tiny, berry-sized tomatoes to mini peppers, cucumbers and other melons. For me, there’s an added benefit to buying smaller fruits and vegetables — I waste less when I cook. Smaller fruits make it easier for me to use just what I need for salads, garnishes, or cooking for two, without having to throw out the leftovers I forgot in the fridge.

Shout it

No matter what produce you grow and sell, if you’re doing it silently you’re probably missing out on market voice and market share. These days, food consumers want to know the story behind the produce they buy, and where and how it was grown. Get a little personal about what you do and how you do it. Don’t be shy to share your passion for produce — now or in the New Year!

Leslie (CPH) owns Halleck Horticultural, LLC, through which she provides horticultural consulting, business and marketing strategy, product development and branding, and content creation for green industry companies. lesliehalleck.com

It’s Sunday morning, and a dad is grocery shopping for his family. As he enters the store and heads to the produce section, he checks his list. Strawberries, his and his daughter’s favorite fruit, are at the top of the list, so he heads directly to a strawberry display. He picks out two clamshells of dark red strawberries, quickly scans the fruit for any obvious issues and places them in his cart. He does not think about the strawberries again until he gets home and eats a handful. It’s September, so the berries are slightly out of season. But they are still edible, if a bit tart for his liking.

A few days later, he heads to the fridge to eat more. But when he takes them out and starts going through the package, he must throw away a handful because several have already gone bad. By the time he’s done going through the clamshells and eating what’s left, the family is out of strawberries. So, he scribbles strawberries back at the top of the family grocery list. He buys them again the following Sunday, and the process repeats itself.

Strawberries are the most popular berry in the United States, according to the California Strawberry Commission, and currently account for 63.9 percent of all berry sales. But the berries are also primarily grown outdoors — 97 percent of strawberries sold in the U.S. are currently field-grown in California, Florida or Mexico, per the California Strawberry Commission — and thus subject to the whims of Mother Nature even before they’re harvested.

The result is a crop that isn’t always what the consumer is looking for, which is a good-tasting strawberry that they purchase when it’s still fresh. It’s also a business opportunity for greenhouse growers who could localize strawberry production and turn it into a year-round operation.

“How many times do you go to the store, buy strawberries and get disappointed?” asks Dr. Chieri Kubota, a researcher at The Ohio State University. “All the time. If you have a fresh strawberry coming out in consistent quality, consumers will come back.”

Asia and Europe outpace North America

Dr. Kubota began her research into greenhouse strawberry production 10 years ago when she was still at the University of Arizona’s Controlled Environment Agriculture Center; she moved her lab to The Ohio State University more than a year ago. She and a team of researchers started their research to determine whether strawberries could be an alternative crop for U.S. greenhouse tomato growers negatively impacted by an increase in imported Mexican tomatoes in the market. At the time, strawberries had already been produced indoors for several years in both Asia and Europe.

“Japan has been producing off-season strawberries for years and years,” Kubota says. “No one produces summertime strawberries at volume there.”

What she and her team learned in the time since then was that, in the U.S. and Canada, there was no data about what varieties worked well in greenhouses. Kubota notes that Asian and European growers have been growing greenhouse strawberries with different varieties than most U.S. growers use.

“Asian and European countries are growing with the June-bearing varieties — the short-day varieties,” she says. “The knowledge base we had was based on these varieties. In the U.S., growers use more day-neutral varieties. It’s totally different flowering and the physiology was completely new to me. We had to figure out everything.”

Additionally, Kubota says that how the berry industry in North America is oriented impacts growers’ ability to produce strawberries indoors. Strawberries must be grown from transplants, she says, and because the current market is comprised almost entirely of field-grown berries that consumers are already purchasing, there has not been a big push to alter the supply chain. In Europe and Asia, it’s the opposite and since 2006, the percentage of strawberries grown in the field has decreased from 85 percent to 76 percent, according to the Netherlands’ most recent agricultural census.

The lack of available transplant materials is also a concern for growers already growing strawberries indoors. According to Duffy Kniaziew, owner of Orangeline Farms, a grower based in Leamington, Ontario, Canada, consistent, quality transplant material is the key to growing high-quality greenhouse strawberries.

“With strawberries, you’re working from cuttings. It’s not as simple as ‘I need a seed, I’m using this variety from this seed house and it’s pretty well consistent every time I use it,” Kniaziew says. “You’re dealing with live materials that come with all kinds of variables and certainly you need strong propagation and plant-raising programs to be able to allow us on the production side to be consistent.”

According to Kubota, growers who are using substrates to grow tomatoes and/or cut flowers, would have the easiest time producing greenhouse strawberries as opposed to growers using soil. Additionally, she says greenhouse strawberry production requires a low night temperature, so growing them successfully also requires the right location. That could limit, she says, where greenhouse strawberries are grown in North America.

Getting ahead of the strawberry market

Orangeline Farms opened in 2000 as a greenhouse bell pepper producer. According to Kniaziew, Orangeline decided to grow peppers because it was a market with unfulfilled potential.

“Tomatoes and cucumbers were really well defined back then,” Kniaziew says. “Peppers were new in controlled environments back then. There was that natural appeal to us back then that is still there today, to grow a product that was supporting [and differentiating] the current supply chain.”

Around seven years ago, Kniaziew says strawberries appeared on Orangeline’s radar as a new opportunity. It was around the same time that the operation also shifted its business model. Up until 2012, Orangeline was a co-packer — meaning it grew the crops, but they were sold in someone else’s packaging. To better vertically integrate the business, Zing! Healthy Food was launched to be the grower’s public brand. Its products, including the “Date Night” strawberries, are now sold in Canadian stores such as Farm Boy and retailers in the Midwest and Northeast United States.

At first, Orangeline produced strawberries outside in raised gutters placed under umbrellas before moving production inside to all year in the often-cold (and not optimal for strawberries) Ontario weather. The strawberries are grown in a different part of the greenhouses than peppers, as the two crops have “vastly” different needs, according to Kniaziew. Orangeline also uses LED lighting to lengthen its growing season.

Kniaziew adds that his business approaches strawberry production more like cut flowers than a fruit or vegetable crop when planning the timing of growing cycles.

“A red rose has a certain value heading up to Valentine’s Day and considerably less the day after,” he says. “Strawberries are very much the same. You want to meet your marks — Christmas, New Year’s, Valentine’s Day. You want to hit your Easter cycle and Mother’s Day. It’s important to have your production peak at those times as opposed to seven days after the fact.”

Kniaziew says that the decision to start growing strawberries was influenced by two key factors. The first is the company’s conscious decision to look to Europe for inspiration and new fruits to produce. Much of what Orangeline does is based on what growers in Europe are already doing.

“We take much of our technology, most of our best practices as Canadian growers from European models,” Kniaziew says. “We look at what European companies are doing and that’s where the heart of the innovation is. And when we look there and know tomatoes are well-defined, cucumbers are well-defined and peppers are well-defined, we see a fourth crop in Europe that is taking a large percentage of the market place. And that’s strawberries.”

The second factor, according to Kniaziew, is that Orangeline wants to better connect with its customer base in Ontario. According to Kniaziew, Ontario consumers have a connection with local produce and there is a local tradition of “picking your own” fruits; he calls it a “romance.” That isn’t an option for strawberries, so the idea was to offer consumers the next best thing and fill gaps in the mark when “pick your own” berries are no longer available each year.

“We asked “What if we could produce a local [strawberry] in the winter?’ when Canadians are buying imported strawberries from California, Florida or Mexico,” he says. “They never really taste like a local berry — they don’t have the same flavor and there’s quite a bit of shrink. When you buy an imported strawberry, you are going to throw out 10, 20, 30 percent of it. Somewhere in the supply chain, it breaks down and becomes something you’re not going to eat.”

Other growers, both big and small, produce strawberries in North American greenhouses, too. Driscoll’s drew attention in 2017 in articles in both The New Yorker and Bloomberg for its aim to “reinvent” the strawberry and “hack it for the future.” A major part of the company’s efforts involved greenhouse trials of different varieties as they developed proprietary varieties only it would grow. Mucci Farms and DelFrescoPure, both growers based in Kingsville, Ontario, Canada, grow strawberries in greenhouses, too.

Growers such as Jesse Adkins at Hurricane Creek Farms in Pelzer, South Carolina, started growing strawberries because they felt it would be a way to build a local brand. The business is in its second year of strawberry production in a hydroponic system.

“We have several restaurants nearby that want to get them,” he says. “But they sell out before we can get them to restaurants.”

The future of greenhouse berries

The demand for greenhouse-grown strawberries is expected to continue its growth in the next few years, according to Kniaziew. A main driver of that growth is the fact that, oftentimes, imported strawberries don’t last long enough for consumers to eat or use every strawberry they purchase. By the time they reach store shelves, they are days removed from being picked and can lose some of their shelf life in transit, particularly if the weather is poor. The idea is that even if local berries cost slightly more per package, the local production and better shelf life justify a higher price.

“I could not come with another product that consumers would buy and then throw 30 percent out and over and over again,” he says. “To some extent, it’s madness.”

Even so, Kniaziew doesn’t see a scenario when greenhouse-grown berries push imported, field-grown varieties out of the market. California produced 169.5 million strawberries in its last growing season, per the California Strawberry Commission, so it’s hard to see greenhouse producers being able to match volume. Instead, Kniaziew says growers should cater to a niche.

“You have the Ontario greenhouse berry competing against the traditional imported berry,” he says. “They’re on the same shelf, but they are certainly at different price points. There’s also going to be a market for a commercial berry where someone has a need for strawberries for a recipe and can buy two clamshells for $5. That’s good value. And there’s another side of the market that’s willing to pay a premium for local. I see both having a place in the marketplace, and it’s a very large marketplace.”

According to Kubota, there’s still a lot to learn about growing strawberries in the greenhouse and there has to be more market buy-in to the concept of greenhouse-grown berries. But like Kniazew, Kubota believes the market drive must be consumer satisfaction with the berries.

“Consumers come back based on their experience,” she says. “And I think retail stores are looking for that too instead of shipping [strawberries] all the way from California or Mexico or Florida.” Dr. Kubota also says strawberries could follow the path of greenhouse-grown tomatoes, which were only a small share of the market 20 to 30 years ago until retail stores embraced greenhouse tomatoes and pushed their market share to around 50 percent.

For the market for greenhouse-grown strawberries to grow, Kniaziew believes more greenhouse-grown berries must be introduced. He feels that if blackberries, blueberries and raspberries could be produced locally in a greenhouse, it would only raise consumer awareness of greenhouse-grown berries. And he expects that both blackberries and raspberries should hit the market in three to five years with blueberries being a bit farther off.

“That’s where this is headed,” Kniaziew says. “For consumers to be able to buy all these berries in the middle of the winter.”

Photo courtesy of Dr. Jessica Cooperstone

Dr. Jessica Cooperstone, a professor and researcher at Ohio State University, in conjunction with a team of researchers, is currently exploring how tomatoes impact human health and perhaps combat cancer. To learn more, read her paper on the topic here.

Produce Grower: What was the genesis of this research?

Dr. Jessica Cooperstone: Carotenoids, a major class of pigments, are responsible for the yellow, orange and red colors of many different fruits and vegetables. Plants make carotenoids to function as accessory pigments, meaning they exist in conjunction with chlorophyll and are involved in light harvesting. It is thought that the carotenoids may act to help dissipate excess light during this photosynthesis, and thus protect the plant against light-induced damage. It has been hypothesized that carotenoids may act in a similar way in people who eat them — though this has not explicitly been shown. There are some data in humans that show that when people eat diets supplemented with tomatoes, they respond less dramatically to UV light than those not eating tomatoes, suggesting that something about tomato consumption can modulate a person’s response to UV light. We were interested to know if this translates out to skin cancer and decided to test this in a model of prevention, which we conducted in mice.

In this study, we fed mice one of three diets: 1) a control, typical purified mouse diet used in laboratory studies, 2) the control diet supplemented with 10 percent red tomato powder, 3) the control diet supplemented with 10 percent “tangerine” tomato powder. The tangerine tomato — it is called tangerine because it is orange in color and has no relation to the citrus fruit — lacks a certain enzyme that causes it to accumulate lycopene, the major pigment in tomatoes, in a different way as compared to a red tomato. This lycopene in the tangerine tomato is in a different configuration, making it appear orange, and also making the lycopene more bioavailable — which we have shown previously. We saw that animals eating either tomato diet had about a 40 to 50 percent reduction in tumor number as compared to those animals not consuming tomato.

PG: What is your research group most interested in finding out?

JC: It is not surprising that what we eat has an effect on our health. Our group is particularly interested in understanding what specifically it is about fruits and vegetables that imparts the benefits we see in those who are eating fruit and vegetable-rich diets. If we can understand which compounds are particularly active, we can then breed, manage for and process to enhance these healthy, beneficial compounds. But without target compounds, nutrition-driven crop development is impossible.

PG: Could eating certain foods help prevent certain diseases, or at least help?

JC: Foods are not drugs and therefore generally do not cure diseases. I think as part of a balanced and healthy diet, this study — and many, many others — demonstrate that tomatoes can impart benefits. I’m working to further understand those benefits. My long-term goal is to continue studying foods and chronic diseases, so we can make science-based recommendations based on a preponderance of evidence. And I would still recommend that people wear sunscreen — really the best thing you can do for yourself if you want to decrease your risk for skin cancer. There is some data in the literature that suggests continued tomato consumption can provide an SPF of about 2, so certainly not a sunscreen replacer.