One is in front of the Flower Fields, another in Del Mar, and a third at the company’s 44,000-square-foot warehouse on Aviara Parkway. The Carlsbad Strawberry Company maintains four fruit stands during strawberry season, which typically runs from Christmas through July. We’ve never sold a day-old strawberry at any of our fruit stands.” Our strawberries might only last two or three days in the refrigerator, whereas store-bought berries are already three days old by the time they get put out. ![]() “Our strawberries taste much sweeter because they have a much higher sugar content, but that also means they don’t last as long on the shelf. “You go to the grocery store and you’ll get what I call ‘red cucumbers’ - they are white on the inside,” he says. Supermarkets prefer strawberries with a longer shelf life than the Albion strain Ukegawa grows. Grocers such as Albertson’s currently pay about $10 for an eight-pound box of strawberries, Ukegawa says, while his break-even cost is $14. “There’s no way we could compete, when south of the border they can produce strawberries way cheaper than we can,” he says. The Ukegawas used to sell strawberries to supermarkets all over the country, but they were ultimately priced out by inexpensive produce from Mexico. “That’s why we’ve had to be innovative,” Ukegawa says, “and figure out ways to sell our strawberries directly to the public.” As for the remaining 25 percent, there’s that tricky little caveat in Proposition D: “as long as feasible.” And Ukegawa maintains the feasibility factor is fast eroding as land values, labor expenses and water costs climb, while crop prices don’t. As a result, strawberries are now grown mostly on land that has been zoned for commercial development. “We moved west, closer to the freeway, because after years and years of growing strawberries the soil became depleted,” said Ukegawa, a tall, lanky figure who looks younger than his 60 years. Only about a quarter of the 25-acre site currently used to grow strawberries by the Ukegawa family’s Carlsbad Strawberry Company sits on the protected land. One particularly large tomato patch is now home to Legoland.īut Carlsbad voters who believed their November 2006 vote would mean strawberry fields forever were sadly mistaken. And here in Carlsbad, the post-World War II housing boom wiped out the avocado orchards on the west side of town, while a similar fate, decades later, awaited the tomato fields on the east side. In Lemon Grove, all that’s left is the name: the last grove of lemon trees was paved over for streets and single-family homes in 1962. The orange groves that gave Orange County its name have been obliterated, paved over for mass tracts of suburbia and Disneyland. California loses one square mile of farmland every five days, according to the state’s Department of Conservation. Residents rejoiced when Proposition D was passed. These are the famed strawberry fields of Carlsbad, farmed by the Ukegawa family since the 1950s on land leased from San Diego Gas & Electric Company – and preserved by the good voters of Carlsbad in November 2006 when they passed Proposition D, which zoned 208 acres of farmland on the southern shores of the Agua Hedionda Lagoon as open space and promotes agricultural uses “as long as feasible.” I remember taking all three of my boys here when they were toddlers, as one of the rites of spring, along with a visit to the nearby Flower Fields and Legoland. It’s been a Carlsbad tradition for 20 years. The fields closest to Cannon are marked “U-Pick,” where families, many with young kids, may pick their own strawberries for $10 a bucket. To read the full coverage or for more information, check out the original report here. ![]() When you visit the farm, please know that masks are required. ![]() Flower Field Stand : corner of Palomar Airport Rd and Paseo Del Norte.Del Mar Stand : on the southeast corner of San Dieguito Rd and El Camino Real.Warehouse Market : 1205 Aviara Pkwy Carlsbad 92011.Plus, if you can’t visit the main farm, on Cannon Road in Carlsbad, visit one of the company’s strawberry stands: ![]() Admission is $5 admission per person, which gets you entrance to the strawberry field and the sunflower maze, with a single bucket fee of $10. A post shared by Carlsbad Strawberry Company addition to the new attractions, the family-owned business continues to offer U-pick throughout the strawberry season.
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