Monday, April 21, 2008

Strawberries - EXPOSED!

Here in Southern California we are blessed with strawberry fields. Anytime from February to May you can drive a mile and pick up a flat of them, fresh from the vine.

Or so I thought!

I was driving by one this morning and parked in front of the stand was a truck and inside the truck were hundreds of flats of strawberries and the driver was carrying the flats from the truck to the stand. Where were those strawberries coming from? Oxnard? Florida? Chile?! Who knows? It probably does not help that this morning I was watching the news and they had a story about how most of the produce that we eat is shipped from Chile and now I'm all paranoid.

I guess that they could be from that field and they were picked the day before and taken to the strawberry processing plant for buffing and shining and attractive basket placement and then returned to the stand for sale but a part of me smells conspiracy and I may have to do a little investigating. Does anyone have a fedora and press pass?

4 comments:

Mr. Hall said...

Can we not get anything that is real in the United States anymore? The appearance and not the substance has become the standard in so many ways, but strawberries! Blast!
I must admit though, that the best strawberries I have ever had were from a road-side stand. . . in Norway. I kid you not, it was like eating candy--SO GOOD!!!

Andrea said...

Not sure where your strawberries came from but I can guarantee they didn't come from Arizona! Next time you visit Solvang, drive north of it for about 30 miles to Santa Maria. That's where my grandma lives and those are some of the best strawberries ever! Although I haven't been to Norway so I could be wrong.

Anonymous said...

The strawberries in our yard should be ripe in early June, and last year they were the sweetest, most juicy deliciousness I've ever had in fresh fruit. I've never been to Norway either, but mine are free! Just another incentive for a trip to Utah...

courtney said...

there's this really great story about what agribusiness has done to strawberries in "How to Pick a Peach" by Russ Parsons (http://www.amazon.com/How-Pick-Peach-Search-Flavor/dp/0618463488). non-fiction; highly recommended.

they'll never taste the same.