Editorial: The sweet, red jewel of Ventura County
The organizers of this year’s reborn, relocated Strawberry Festival were taught a lesson that local farmers learned long ago: Never underestimate the appeal of a Ventura County strawberry.
This year’s festival, renewed after a three-year pandemic hiatus, was the first to be held at the Ventura County Fairgrounds. In terms of public response, it was a smashing success. In terms of organizational logistics, not so much.
It drew an estimated 55,000 attendees over two days, exceeding expectations. Traffic and parking were headaches. Lines were long. A good deal of grumbling on social media ensued.
The public embrace of the reborn festival should have been a surprise to no one. In one form or another, until the coronavirus came along, the festival had been a fixture in Ventura County for 40 years — first at Channel Islands Harbor and then, after outgrowing that, at Oxnard’s College Park. It reliably attracted tens of thousands of visitors annually.
The Strawberry Festival committee vows to evaluate the problems that unfolded this year and to work more closely with the city of Ventura, law enforcement agencies, transportation officials and vendors in an effort to host a more trouble-free event next spring. It’s worth the effort — for in Ventura County, few things are more worthy of celebration than the glorious strawberry.
For most of the 20th century, lemons were the king of Ventura County agriculture. But by 2001, the marketplace and consumers had soured a bit on that crop. Strawberries became king and have never looked back.
The most recent county crop report showed the value of strawberry production at $712 million — more than half the total value of all county crops and nearly triple the value of second-place lemons, the deposed king.
Ventura County is to strawberries what Vermont is to maple syrup or Hawaii to pineapples: The nation relies on us for its supply. The California Strawberry Commission reports that this state produces about 90% of America’s strawberries, all on only about 1% of California’s farmland. About 60% of the total production comes from two areas — the Watsonville-Salinas area in Monterey County and the Oxnard Plain.
On average, Americans eat about 5 pounds of strawberries each year, and local growers are able to meet that demand through prodigious production: One acre of strawberry plants in California produces on average 21 tons of berries.
The appeal of the strawberry is self-evident. It’s as pretty to look at as it is delicious to eat, and for consumers — absent shortcake or whipped cream or sugary syrups, of course — it is a guiltless treat. A fresh strawberry is sweet health food, packed with vitamins, fiber, potassium and antioxidants.
At these festivals, of course, some of these health benefits become overwhelmed with epicurean excess in the form of, say, strawberry pizza or strawberry nachos.
At this new location, there is an opportunity for the Strawberry Festival to become an annual attraction on par with the Ventura County Fair. Coordination with Metrolink could relieve traffic congestion at the Fairgrounds and take advantage of the adjacent Amtrak station. Shuttles can be arranged.
Ventura officials should not wait for Strawberry Festival organizers to reach out to them; they should take a lead in addressing logistical obstacles to what could become a predictable, once-a-year economic bonanza for the region.
Let no one ever again underestimate the appeal of the Ventura County strawberry.
This article originally appeared on Ventura County Star: Editorial: The sweet, red jewel of Ventura County
