CENTRE — Leon Smith has done a little bit of everything in his life: husband, father, pastor, organizer and leader. But at heart, the man who bills himself as Cherokee County's only commercial strawberry producer says he's really always been a farmer.

“When I was a kid I was fascinating with growing things,” says Smith, who spent his childhood on a farm. “I liked to see things grow and mature.”

Smith, 70, planted his first row of strawberries on a leased plot along County Road 69 between Centre and Cedar Bluff about five years ago, he reckons – and he's had his ups and downs ever since.

“Last year was somewhat of a disaster because the picking season only lasted three weeks instead of 5-6 weeks,” he says. “We had so much rain that we couldn't get the berries out the field in time.”

Smith, who allows customers to pick their own bucket of berries for $8 a gallon, is hoping this year will be different. (He also offers a gallon of picked berries for $11.)

“This year's crop will probably be one of the best I've ever had,” he says. “We're going to have plenty of strawberries.”

Smith says he began setting out this year's two-acre crop back in October.

“We started preparing the ground before that, in September,” he says. “This is called plasti-culture farming. We use plastic liners and the water line and fertilizer is all delivered underneath with a regular garden hose.”

If all goes well, Smith says his 16,000 plants will supply strawberries well past Memorial Day. But Smith enjoys staying in the field all summer, so he doesn't limit his patch of soil to just one crop.

“I've also got plenty of green onions, about 3,500 plants,” he says. “And there are 600 cabbage plants that will be coming in about the middle of May.”

Not long after that, the first of Smith's many rows of peaches-and-cream corn will be ready for picking.

“I plant three crops about two weeks apart, and that way you have about two weeks picking on each,” he says. “It's sweet corn, the best I've ever tasted.”

Smith says he occasionally peeks at his farmer's almanac, but mostly relies on daily – and sometimes hourly – weather reports from Dish Network and the National Weather Service before he plans his day in the field.

“All I have to worry about now is a hail storm,” he says. “Five seconds of marble-sized hail and it's all over. There'd be nothing left but a stem.”

One advantage of Smith's leased location that he does not take advantage of is all the free water in nearby Weiss Lake.

“There's a problem getting water out of the lake,” Smith says. “It has too much bacteria and you risk disease. Plus, it's cheaper and easier to buy water than it is to buy gasoline and run a generator.”

Smith said his water bill runs around $150 a month, which is much less expensive and troublesome than his old gas generator, which he keeps on-site only for emergencies.

“With gas as much as it is now it would probably cost $40 a day to run that generator,” says the former Baptist minister who pauses, then adds with a grin: “If you were out here trying to keep that thing running all the time you'd not only lose money, you'd lose your religion.”