Simonian Farms Strawberries (Fresno)
My hosts in Fresno sent me off with a basket of strawberries from the nearby farm to take to my mom. We just tried them now and they're incredibly ripe and luscious. Deep red in color, red all the way through in fact, these are soft and juicy, quite sweet, and just a spark of tanginess in the finish. I didn't get a chance to visit local landmark, Simonian Farms, this trip, will have to put it on the itinerary for next time.
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Simonian Farms
2629 S Clovis Ave, Fresno, CA
By Melanie Wong
on May 18, 2008 06:32 PM
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Melanie..... Actually in the Fresno area there are A LOT of strawberry farms operation by Southeast Asians. They appear to have the secret to good strawberries. Out on Herndon Ave between Cedar and Clovis Ave dot the farms and in the Southeast area of Fresno (where Simonian Farms is located) also. I don't believe they grow them themselves.
Danny
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I'm going to echo the tone of Bakersfield Hound's comments above. Instead of stopping at Simonian Farms, my wife & I drive out to some of the farms & orchards southeast of Fresno (down near Kingsburg) for stone fruits & berries (mostly blueberries & blackberries). And if we want strawberries we drive to one of the stands (usually run by Hmong & other Southeast Asian families) in north Fresno or Clovis (a few along Herndon; a couple more along Shepard). A year or so ago we have also visited some of the stands east of Clovis on Shaw. There's an online site somewhere that lists strawberry stands in the Fresno area but we've found the information about locations to be unreliable. So instead we drive around until we see them & then stop. We have more places to explore so my information here is definitely incomplete.
Most of the strawberries we've had in the Fresno area are either Chandlers or Camarosas. Evidently (from the little I've learned) the Chandlers are more common (& tend to grow better?) along the Central California coast (San Luis Obispo County & south) & in Southern California. Camarosas seem to grow better in the Central Valley & points north. Although we've had some delicious Chandlers, our preference leans more toward the Camarosas. I wonder if there are other varieties around here.
Simonian Farms is not a bad place to stop, but I think of it as kitschy & more of a tourist stop than a serious eater's (i.e., Chowhound) destination. They get a lot of press around here (I think because they've been around forever) but, as a Chowhound, you probably know as well as I that the best places to eat are often the ones that aren't getting all the public attention.
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Pleasure to meet you and gbg! Thanks to Bakersfield Hound and you for the 411 on Simonian. I'd be most disappointed to learn that the strawberries were not grown by Simonian, as the farm is less than a half mile away from my friends' house and about as local as it gets for them. I had enjoyed thinking that I was tasting their home terroir. These berries were quite soft and jammy (but not mushy), quite a difference from the coastal berries that I'm accustomed to from Oxnard, Santa Maria, Watsonville, Davenport, Petaluma, or Sebastopol.
Saturday I got to the Vineyard by 8:25am and spotted the line in front of Moa's Produce table for strawberries. Dumb me, I waited too long to line up and they were soon sold out. I tried some Camarosas from another local grower who arrived a bit later, but even selecting the reddest and ripest looking of samples, I found it still a bit underripe with a bitter finish. I skipped the folks with strawberries from Watsonville as I can get those any time.
When I have a chance to visit my friends again during cooler weather, which will probably be past strawberry season, I'll stroll over to Simonian for a look-see and keep your comments in mind.
Discussion of strawberry varieties -
http://www.chowhound.com/topics/311879
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Vineyard Farmers Market
Blackstone and Shaw Streets, Fresno, CA
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