We live in the "Winter Strawberry Capital of the World". Quite an impressive title for our teeny-tiny town situated in the middle of 5,000 acres of strawberry fields. We've grown to love it. We reside in a 107-year old Victorian house, surrounded by a picket fence and lots of friendly neighbors. We're just a few miles from our hometown, where we go to church, Mr. B works, where our kids will go to school, and where our parents and lots of other extended family live. We're close to the beach, Disney, and all of the fun to be found in Orlando and Tampa. Not to mention the fact that we and our girls love strawberries. We buy them "by the flat" and eat enough between February and April to get us through the rest of the year. This weekend, we celebrated the arrival of strawberry season.
The Parke family has been growing strawberries in our community since 1956. They harvest over 3 million pounds a year. We spent Saturday afternoon getting a tour of Gary Parke's unique organic, hydroponic strawberry operation. It was such a fun afternoon and Gary was such a great host--his enthusiasm makes it obvious that he loves what he does. He let us sample 5 different varieties of strawberries and then fill our baskets with our favorite kind (which was "Treasure", by the way). We picked 5 pounds of strawberries (though judging by the number of empty stems in the girls baskets, we probably should have put the girls on the scale on our way in and out to get a more accurate indication of the weight of strawberries we picked).
On Sunday, we visited the Parkesdale Farm Market run by Gary's sister, Cheryl. Sunday afternoon trips to Parkesdale Market during shortcake season have been a B family tradition for years. Parkesdale Market is the best place in central Florida to buy fresh fruits, vegetables and ornamental plants. They also have the best orange juice around and a "World Famous" strawberry shortcake available only during strawberry season. If you're traveling down Interstate 4 in Florida, it's a stop not to miss (both McCain and Obama dropped by as their campaigns blazed through our state).
Mmmmmm. How sweet it is!
Stawberries for months... I'm salivating just thinking about it. Up here they ripen for about 3 weeks in June- ish.... But I pick and freeze as many as I can to try and last the year.. but inevitably I eat them all by the end of summer!
ReplyDeleteI seriously bought strawberries at the store yesterday after seeing your post :) I don't think they tasted even close to as good as the ones in that picture, but I was drawn to them after seeing your post. Harmony
ReplyDeleteWe are excited to be able to buy PC strawberries at a market down the street! They are 10.99 a half flat! Is that a good deal or not? Do you live in PC? We are in Tampa, but we just moved here!
ReplyDeleteWelcome to Tampa! We do live in PC. Take a break from your unpacking and garage cleaning this weekend and drive to Parkesdale for some shortcake and fresh picked berries--they currently have Treasure at 14.95 for a full flat and Camarosas at 12.95 for a full flat. Prices will drop even more after the Festival in mid-March.
ReplyDeleteI am so sad... I loved fresh strawberries are the best! I miss California! :) H
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