30 | www.Ups tatePhys i c i ansSC . com | www.Hea l thL i nksUps tate. com STRAWBERRY HILL USA Another South Carolina farm helmed by a father-daughter team is Strawberry Hill USA in Chesnee. They, too, have had to adopt evolutionary strategies to keep delivering local produce into the hands of Carolinians. Starting as a cotton farm in the early 1900s, members of this generational farming family have grown this business into a multifaceted agricultural venture with multiple locations. Brandi Cooley-Easler and sister Bethani Cooley-McLellan, who work alongside their father, are the operations managers for the farm. Over the years, the Cooley family has diversified their offerings and operating style, and the women give their father full credit for the innovative measures taken to keep the farm productive. “Peaches are our bread and butter,” Cooley-Easler said. “But we’re now known for our strawberries, too. Additionally, we grow row crops such as cucumbers, cantaloupes and squash.” The first peaches were planted after grandfather Gene Cooley’s return from World War II on land given to him by his father under the condition that he dig the 2,000 holes required to plant the trees himself. He did and the rest is an ever-evolving history. Cooley-Easler recalled a year when her father, after losing a peach crop to cold weather and supporting the farm that season by chopping and selling firewood, decided that it was time to make some changes. Just as his father had added peaches to the cotton, James Cooley decided to gamble on a new crop. “He knew it was a risk,” Cooley-Easler said, “But as my dad likes to say: “You can’t be afraid to go out on a limb. That’s where the fruit is.” In 1995, Cooley invested in strawberries on 6 acres of the Cooley farm. Those 6 acres have grown into 120 acres, making it the largest strawberry farm in South Carolina. The crop has proven to be a good investment. The small plants are easier to protect when Mother Nature wreaks havoc on the farms. “We can cover the strawberries if we need to,” Cooley-Easler said. “Because we grow the berries with tunnel greenhouses as well, we can extend our strawberry season until almost Christmas,” she added. “Diversifying is becoming more common among local farms,” Cooley-Easler explained. “Family farms have sort of dissipated, and we all have had to figure out ways to keep it going.” That’s what the Cooley family has done. In addition to the 800 acres of peaches and 120 acres of strawberries, the family has added a store, a café, an ice cream shop and a roadside stand in nearby Gaffney. The Cooley Farm also offers an educational series each spring. Scores of schoolchildren visit and enjoy tractor-drawn wagon tours as they learn about all it takes to run a working farm. They’re treated to homemade ice cream, then sent home with a pint of strawberries and a better understanding of where their food comes from. Cooley-Easler and her family put everything they have into this venture and it shows. “That’s what agriculture is all about,” she said. “It’s about working hard and doing it with your whole heart.”
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