A Day on the Farms with the California Strawberry Commission

Good morning, my friends! On Saturday, I was lucky enough to spend the day playing on a strawberry farm – Terry Farms near Ventura, California.

I was on the trip with the California Strawberry Commission, who kindly hosted myself and some fellow bloggers for the weekend. A few of the local bloggers also brought their children along for the ride. Such a cool opportunity!

I spent most of the day hanging out with my buddy Monica & new friends Liz and Kevin. Fun group!

Did you know that California is the nation’s leading producer of strawberries? In 2013, more than 2.3 billion pounds of strawberries were harvested, which adds up to nearly 90 percent of the country’s total fresh and frozen strawberries.

Why California, you ask? Well – sandy coastal soils, western ocean exposure and moderate temperatures make up the perfect combination for a year-round strawberry growing season. More than four hundred family farmers grow strawberries on approximately 40,000 acres from Orange County all the way to the Monterey Bay.

The Terry family has been farming in Ventura County in California for over 110 years. We had the pleasure of meeting fourth generation farmer Edgar Terry, who owns the farm, and his son William, who manages the day-to-day farming activities (and, yes, is also easy on the eyes). The rest of the family is involved in the business, too – Edgar’s wife runs HR, his daughter manages employee compliance, hiring, and food safety, and his brother runs the machine shop. Quite the team!

In addition to growing strawberries on 200 acres since 2002, Edgar grows a variety of crops, including celery, peppers, cilantro and spinach on about 2,000 acres of land.

We were treated to a hay ride around their strawberry fields, stopping frequently to learn more about their farm and strawberries in general. It was so interesting to learn from them!

All California strawberries are hand-picked to ensure only the highest quality berries are harvested. Strawberry plants continually produce new fruit throughout their season; during peak season the plants are harvested every three days. This also means they get less repeated exposure to pesticides, compared to produce that is harvested less frequently.

Once picked, fresh strawberries are rushed to coolers, where huge fans remove the field heat, and then shipped within 24 hours on refrigerated trucks or air freighted to their final destination. Or they might skip that and just go straight into my mouth. :) Fresh strawberries right from the source = heaven.

Some strawberry nutrition fun facts:

• 8 strawberries contain more vitamin C than an orange!
• Strawberries are low in sugar and contain only about 50 calories.
• Strawberries are a great source of fiber, folate and potassium.
• Strawberries are packed with antioxidants, which protect against oxidative stress.

After learning more about the farm and its strawberries, it was time to eat more of them! After our hay ride, we were treated to an amazing multi course strawberry-inspired lunch courtesy of The Lobos Truck.

For appetizers, we enjoyed strawberries stuffed with fresh herbed farmers cheese and rolled in pecan bacon dust (!). Yeah, it rocked. Plus a lacinato kale salad with strawberries, red grapes, spicy candied pecans and bleu cheese in a raspberry honey vinaigrette. Also amazing!

Next up were some fun small plates. First, this beautiful mini grilled chicken taco with savory strawberry, serrano, fire roasted corn, red onion and avocado salsa with anejo cheese. SO good.

Next up, a mini burger with a twist! This was a peanut butter & strawberry jam kobe slider with bacon, served on a mini brioche bun. OMGGGGGG. I never would have thought to put PB&J with bacon and beef, but it was so epic. I’m glad my close up photo did it justice. ;)

Plus waffle fries, which are clearly the best kind of fries.

We had little homemade condiments on the table – a strawberry ketchup went with the fries – so good!

Next up was another mini-entrée – a surf and turf creation with one babyback rib topped with strawberry BBQ sauce and crabcakes with strawberry honeydew salsa & crème fraiche. They were both great but I really loved the rib – super smoky!

After a breather, our final course was a cute little strawberry shortcake in a jar and a strawberry popsicle. Delicious, but I only had a few bites of each since I’d had my fill by this point. :) What an amazing lunch!

A big thank you again to the California Strawberry Commission for covering my expenses for this trip and sponsoring this post, to the Terry Farms team for graciously hosting us on their farm for the day, and to the Lobos Truck for the amazing lunch. I felt so lucky to be there.

What’s your favorite way to eat strawberries? I love them as is, on salads, on my Perfect Microwave Banana Oatmeal, and in smoothies – my favorite is my {All That’s Missing is the} Tropical Island Smoothie!

p.s. Happy April Fools Day! I didn’t plan ahead in time to do any pranks – did you come up with (or see any) good ones yet? I’ve been loving the ones I’ve seen on blogs so far!