Burr’s Berry Farm is well known for its famous strawberry milkshakes. Tourists and locals line up around the small berry stand where Mrs. Burr keeps the tradition of the farm alive. In back of the stand are rows of hydroponically grown strawberry plants elevated so that customers can pick their own strawberries without even having to bend over. The elevated hydroponic plants are at the south end of what was once a north/south grass runway. The sounds of radial engine biplanes and gentle Cubs, Chiefs and Champs that once lived on Burr’s Berry Farm are no more. Homes now surround the farm where aviation once thrived in South Florida near Homestead and the Florida Keys.
One of the two grass runways at Burr’s ran east and west, with the other running north and south. The east runway approach was over tall pine trees, with telephone poles on the opposite end of the runway. From our home a few blocks away, I would watch as the bright colors of yellow and blue silhouetted the shapes of Cubs and Stearmans on their final approach to Burr’s. They would approach the short grass runway, go into a sideslip and then disappear behind the tall pines. It was no secret that I took every chance I had to hang around the open wooden hangar at Burr’s or by the runway watching wings take flight into the sky as if by magic.
