Strawberry Delight

This week, Fresh Local Strawberries in:

Cherry Valley 
38865 Cherry Valley Blvd
(between Nancy and Beaumont Ave.)
Open 9:00am – 6:00pm Sunday – Friday, closed Saturday  

U-Pick Most people who live in the Pass and Yucaipa communities have at least some inkling about the many u-pick orchards open in Oak Glen, but you might be surprised to learn that there is at least one great option in Cherry Valley. Fresh strawberries, both u-pick and pre-sorted, are available right on Cherry Valley Blvd.

About halfway between Nancy and Beaumont Ave. sits a small and unassuming strawberry farm set well back from the road. The berry patch is owned and operated by local grower Young Kwun.

Think of the Children
I tagged along with Kjeld and his family as they headed over to the farm Thursday afternoon to pick their own berries. With buckets in hand the kids went to work, competing with each other to see who could pick the most. In short order the pair had more berries than we needed for our review, but they were having so much fun it was hard to keep them pointed towards the stand on the way out of the patch. 

Local Agriculture
Young is also the owner of Tabithamax Blueberry Farms located in Porterville, California, a small agricultural city off highway 99 in California’s Central Valley farm belt. Tabithamax sells fresh blueberries to distributors such as Costco and Trader Joe's. Young has plans to launch a second blueberry crop on 10 acres in the San Timoteo Canyon next year. He excitedly described to us how the San Timoteo farm will grow the newest strains of blueberries which are sweeter and pack a better crunch.

“I’m committed to growing high-quality local produce,” Young tells us as he describes his various operations, “I think it’s important to the community”. The Cherry Valley berry patch is an excellent reflection of his work.

The Homegrown Difference
Once home we whipped together a small batch of shortcake from an easy Bisquick recipe, washed and cut the fruit, and dug in. A perfect balance of juicy and sweet, the strawberries were among the best we’ve tasted in a while. Five of us ate the entire haul in one sitting and we plan on going back for more ASAP.

If you’re short on time, the stand also sells pre-packed berries picked fresh that day. We didn’t specifically compare prices, but our guess is that the berries are slightly more expensive than what you might find in the market on a sale day. Regardless, they were so good we’d gladly pay a premium.

Check out the attached photos to see what we’re talking about.

A Problem of Signs
The one drawback, if you can call it that, is that the patch is a little hard to find. When we first scoped out the location last week, we drove right past the farm twice before finally spotting the little roadside stand. Kjeld’s mom tells us that she gave up entirely after realizing the signs weren’t going to get her to the right place.

When we brought this up with Young he apologized profusely telling us that this was new for them and that they were still getting organized. We thought we’d help out and have provided a link at the top of this article to a Google map showing the exact location.