Ever since my extra-long weekend near San Francisco last summer, I’ve involuntarily added another step to selecting strawberries at the grocery. I check their home address.
I learned long ago to look for Spanish clementines, blueberries from Michigan, Ohio-grown apples and Mexican atalfo mangoes, but a strawberry’s hometown wasn’t a significant detail until I drove through Watsonville, California. Situated in a cool valley between ocean and hills, Watsonville’s temperate Mediterranean climate and fertile soils combine to create ideal growing conditions for, among other things, strawberries.
We were en route to the Pebble Beach area, but Watsonville’s acres of strawberries, blackberries and raspberries created a rolling visual that made me wish for a twenty-five hour day and the opportunity to walk just a little deeper into the agricultural scenery. My friend told me that Watsonville would show up on the packaging information for most of my grocery bought strawberries. It does, and I smile every time I read “Watsonville, CA.”
Salinas, to the southeast is similarly known for its lettuce and artichoke output. It supplies 80% of these green goods for US consumers and is nicknamed “The Salad Bowl of the World.”
My own food gardening is unlikely to expand much beyond chili peppers and herbs; having visuals now of where some of the rest of my favorite food groups grow makes a good thing taste even better…
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Those strawberries look heavenly. I love them dipped in chocolate…… It’s crazy how the prices fluctuate out here throughout the year. During strawberry season, you can buy them by the crate for pennies. Nice post!
Thanks for the info. I LOVE blueberries, so now I’ll keep an eye out for the Michigan tag. I think they’re about $5/mouthful now. I haven’t killed any perennials, so perhaps I’ll try growing them in the spring, if we have one.
Those berries mean business!
YUMMY! Great photos, Heather. Learned something too! Bonus!
Intrepid: Don’t they? We go through a lot of fruit here, and the berries have been great lately. My favorite fruit -the atalfo mangoes- should be showing up at the grocery in another month or so.
You’re right about the price fluctuations. To feed my group, I try to go “seasonal” whenever possible.
Bob: Blueberries are wonderful. Ours, thankfully, have been priced a little better than what you’re finding. It would be fun to grow them. We get a lot of deer, so I tend to stick with the peppers and spices that are less appealing to them. They’d just love it if I grew blueberries!
Jean-Luc: I hope things have warmed up over there. Are strawberries a favorite in the UK too?
Nina: Thanks! I’m interested to read your BMI post (spotted it in my Google reader). I had assumed “body mass index;” “brain machine interface” sounds like intriguing stuff!
Ever try mangos and peaches mixed together?
Nice scene photos Heather! I love strawberries. I’m not sure whether those US strawberries selling here in Malaysia are from Watsonville but they do look alike, and my wife loves it most!
Cheers!
Hi, had you come to Indonesia?
thank you
Intrepid: I will now! Sounds like a wonderful combination…
Cecil Lee: We’re still enjoying lots of strawberries here. Dipped them in dark chocolate for Valentines’ Day -yum!
Medic: I haven’t but hope that I will. You live in a unique and fascinating country!
This is a great example of photography………….