STRAWBERRY DELIGHT

Red sweet strawberries at the farmers market are as much a signal of summer in Carpinteria as crowded beaches and shirtlessness up and down Linden Avenue. Eat a summer strawberry and be prepared to want more than one. At Carpinteria Magazine , we surprised ourselves by learning that there’s a lot more to strawberries than just good taste. Perhaps you’ll find a fact or two that surprises you, too.

Santa Barbara County produced $849.7 MILLION worth of strawberries in 2021.

THE AVERAGE STRAWBERRY has 200 seeds.

Strawberries became widely cultivated in Europe after the combination of STRAWBERRIES AND CREAM was served to King Henry VIII.

NINETY-FOUR PERCENT of American households purchase strawberries.

On average, Americans eat more than 8 POUNDS of strawberries annually.

In 2021, Santa Barbara County farms produced an average of 57,820 pounds of fresh STRAWBERRIES PER ACRE.

CALIFORNIA HAS MORE THAN FOUR TIMES the strawberry acreage of Florida, which ranks second for strawberry growing among states.

ANCIENT ROMANS used the berries to treat everything from depression to fever and sore throats.

10 MILLION BASKETS of strawberries are shipped daily during harvest time in California.

By mass, strawberries contain more VITAMIN C than oranges.