The annual Strawberry Festival held in Plant City, Florida comes to an end in a few hours - today was the last day. This festival started in 1930 and is held for 10 days in late February/early March. The roots of this festival are deeply associated with the strawberry harvest and represents a piece of Americana when festivals brought communities together to celebrate the harvests.
Today, the festival has grown from it's early roots, still celebrating the strawberry harvest but including more than just strawberries and a small midway of rides. This year the strawberries appear to be very plentiful!
Strawberries are low in sugar and provide all the vitamin C in just a few berries (I think the sign said about 7 a day).
The strawberry plants are grown on dirt 'mounds' that are covered with black plastic which helps keep down the weeds and pests as well as keep the moisture at the roots of the plant. Much of the overall process is done with machinery today with the exception of the planting of the plants and harvesting - those are still done by people and in today's farming, the Mexicans are the hard workers doing these tasks. Payment is per flat of strawberries which are picked every 3 to 5 days.
If strawberries aren't your food of choice, there were plenty of other options!
Turkey legs....
or funnel cakes....
And of course, there are rides!
By the end of the day - which one of these is you?
Until next time....