Harry's Berries Makes a Welcome Return

In Southern California, because of our beautiful weather, we have the luxury of buying some products year-round such as avocados and strawberries, but every plant has a cycle and I try to eat them only when they’re in season. For strawberry lovers, the time is now.

“At our farm, May is the peak season for strawberries,” said Kris Gean, the owner of Harry’s Berries, a family-owned farm in Oxnard. “You can get strawberries from other farmers throughout the year, but they’re not like ours."

Gean’s grandfather, Harry Iwamoto, immigrated to the United States in the late 1950s. At first, he worked as a landscape gardener, but was told he could make more money as a farmer. After leasing 11 acres of land, he taught himself how to grow strawberries.

“We could grow the strawberries year-round, but we continue to farm the land as my grandfather did,” Gean said. “Since we are organic, we rotate the crops and hand-weed everything, because we don’t use herbicides.”

The farm is now run by Iwamoto’s children, Kaz and Molly, their spouses and children.

“In order to do that type of farming, we need to go into a smaller production,” Gean said. “This winter’s been very rough for us, because of the weather and everything was delayed.”

Normally, Harry’s Berries leaves the market after Thanksgiving and returns with its limited harvest around February, but due to the extreme weather this year, the harvest of strawberries has just returned to the Weho market.

Harry’s Berries grows two heirloom varieties of strawberries: the Chandler, which has a strong berry perfume with a softer, juicer texture and Seascape, which has a lower acidity level, a firmer texture and a wild berry-like flavor. These berries from Harry’s Berries are also much more expensive than others at the market.

“Our strawberries have a smaller yield than farmers who grow commercial varieties in mass production,” Gean explains. “Hopefully you can taste the difference and understand why ours cost more.”

This week was the first harvest for asparagus and small zucchini-squash for Harry’s Berries. In June, it will also harvest  tomatoes, French green beans (haricot verts) and yellow Italian wax beans. It also sells bottled homemade items such as salsa, pickled dill beans and raspberry and strawberry preserves.

Feel free to share stories and recipes of the items you find interesting at the market. If you see me strolling about, please say hello. See you next week.

The West Hollywood Farmers' Market is held every Monday (rain or shine) from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Plummer Park, 1200 N. Vista St.