If you've tasted a strawberry recently, there's a good chance it came from California.
Proof
Strawberry Fields, Forever?
On the Season 11 premiere of Proof, the story of how Japanese farmers popularized strawberries in America.
By Published July 29, 2022
That's where 90 percent of strawberries in the U.S. are grown.
What you might not know is the role Japanese immigrants played in growing and popularizing strawberries in the U.S.
On the Season 11 premiere of Proof, the flagship podcast from America's Test Kitchen, reporter Hannah Kirshner traveled to Watsonville, Calif., a two-hour drive south of San Francisco. She tells the story of how Japanese-Americans—through their resilience—used ingenuity to turn strawberries from a seasonal fruit to one that's available year-round.
Listen to this episode here, or wherever you get your favorite podcasts.
If you'd like to learn more about this subject, we recommend a few sources:
- A Taste for Strawberries, by Manabi Hirasaki with Naomi Hirahara
- Strawberry Days, by David Neiwert
- Japanese American National Museum
- Densho
- Nature Behind Barbed Wire, by Connie Y. Chiang
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