California Strawberries

California provides 88% of the nation’s Strawberries, and the region is experiencing an incredibly bountiful harvest this year. With over 35,000 acres of fields across California, the growers will be picking nearly 6 million crates of delicious, ripe strawberries this week to deliver to grocery stores nationwide.

Are wondering how to best take advantage of all these strawberries? Whether it is making fresh strawberry shortcake for a backyard BBQ, dipping them in whipped cream, or just grabbing some as a quick, sweet afternoon snack, strawberries remind us of long, sunny summer days.

Strawberries are my all time FAVORITE fruit! I can eat them all day every day and all year long. I must say that this year the strawberries are the best they have been in a very long time!

Fun strawberry facts to share with your kids:

• If you lined up all of the strawberries grown in California in one straight line, they would wrap around the entire Earth 15 times.
• Guessing game! There are about 200 seeds on the outside of each strawberry.
• California harvests over a billion pounds of strawberries annually.
• One acre of land (about the size of one football field) grows about 50,000 pounds of strawberries – that’s the same weight as 4 elephants!

For us moms, it’s worth knowing:

• Strawberries contain powerful antioxidants and rank second among the top ten fruits in antioxidant capacity: one serving of strawberries contains more Vitamin C than an orange.
• Strawberries may help reduce the risk of heart disease, fight some types of cancer and lower blood pressure. Not bad for a little red berry!
• Don’t forget! The antioxidants in strawberries also aid in memory performance and may help prevent Alzheimer’s disease by reducing oxidative stress and inflammation, two key factors that can cause age-related diminished brain function.

Hundreds of strawberry recipes can be found here.

Visit Strawberryville, an online destination for kids full of interactive games, activities and kid-friendly recipes!