Dan's Papers - June 27, 2008 - Hampton Tradition XLIII

Picking strawberries has been a tradition not just in the Hamptons, but all over the country. It's as American as strawberry jam, strawberry ice cream, and fresh, chilled strawberries in cereal with milk. And for as long as there have been children living on the land that is now referred to as the Hamptons, picking strawberries has been a popular summer tradition.

The Hayground Market dates back to 1953, Tate King's North Sea Farms to 1941, and Swank family farms all the way back to the 1800s. Out on Route 27 are some of the strawberry fields of Brad and Lorraine Reeve, members of the famous Reeve family that has managed Bayview Farms on the North Fork for over 400 years. Brad and Lorraine have been on the South Fork for the last 23 years, marketing the produce grown on their family's 300 acres across both the North and South Forks.

Lorraine says that while July is great for sweet corn, tomatoes, raspberries, green beans and zucchini, the whole month of June is high strawberry season. She enjoys seeing the children picking strawberries and has fond memories of doing it as a child, as well as watching her sons, Paul and Brad Jr., who now help run the family farm, pick them when they were younger.

Working one of the Reeves' "Pick Your Own" strawberry stands is Lauren Andrews, now 22, who attended Southampton High School. On a recent visit, she handed out collecting cartons to some excited young children, and remembered going with her parents to do the same thing when she was a child. "We would drive all over to our favorite locations on both the North and South Fork," recalled Andrews. She picked up some tips of the trade along the way, which she is now happy to share with customers. "The small ones are definitely sweeter - look for that nice, dark red color." What not to pick? "Ones that are too soft or have brown spots."

To once again witness the pleasure of children picking strawberries I pulled into one of those farm stands with a huge strawberry out by the road. My children used to love to see those big inflatable strawberries as much as the Flanders Big Duck, which they thought actually got up and moved itself, since it seemed every year to be someplace else. In the field I watched the three McGee sisters - all under eight years old - work as a team. Aalyea would point out to Idalis where to have Karis pick a strawberry. It was classic sister teamwork. Every now and then one the girls would just bite into a berry and eat it. Their mother was off in the distance watching, perhaps thinking back to when she was the young child picking the berries. Soon, the little ones were tiring out. They had full cartons of personally picked strawberries and a few strawberry stains on their blouses. When I asked to take their pictures, they proudly showed me the fruits of their labors.

There's still time to pick strawberries on the East End. The Reeve' 75 acres on the South Fork are situated off Route 27 between Bridgehampton and Southampton. The market stand opens at 7:30 a.m. and closes right after the sun goes down. Lorraine, who still lives on the North Fork (Mattituck), gets up at five every morning for the drive to work. During the season, of course, that's seven days a week. In the winter she said, "We plan seven days a week for the next season." For more information, call 631-537-1676.