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Strawberry fields almost forever – NCSU, Rowan County farm try ‘tunnels’ for special berries

Strawberries growing in "tunnels"

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• N.C. Research Campus
• Salisbury Post report
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By Emily Ford, The Salisbury Post

KANNAPOLIS, N.C. - A Rowan County farm and N.C. State University have won a grant to try to lengthen the strawberry growing season so North Carolina farmers can better compete with berries from California and Florida.

Patterson Farm, owned by brothers Doug and Randall Patterson, now has one acre of strawberries under experimental high tunnels, thanks to a $150,000 grant from the N.C. Tobacco Trust Fund.

If all goes well, shoppers could see local strawberries on grocery store shelves next winter.

"We are off and running, really running," said Dr. Jeremy Pattison, the N.C. State strawberry breeder who works at the N.C. Research Campus in Kannapolis.

For more details, see the Salisbury Post report.

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