A Berry by Any Other Name Would Be...Organic?

I recently went to a Farmers Market in Southern California in search of Organic strawberries. There were over a dozen vendors of local strawberries, but none of them were from the "Certified Organic" vendors. I headed to the Market Manager.

"There are no Certified Organic strawberries at this market," she told me [*gasp*]. "But Harry's Berries grows organically, without the certification."

Intriguing.

So I wandered over to Harry's Berries stand to investigate.

Set on a table were pints and flats of beautiful, red, ripe strawberries. The fragrance was warm and sweet and soft, seductive like a beautiful woman on the dance floor wearing red shoes and mysterious perfume. You had to look. You wanted to touch.

"Can I help you today?" asked the Harry's Berries girl, her fingertips stained red from berry juice.

"Yes, please," I replied. "Tell me about your berries."

They offered two varieties: the Gaviota, a low acid, super sweet variety with gently yielding flesh, and the Seascape, a more acidic, more complex sweet-tart variety with firmer flesh.

"The Market Manager said you grow your produce organically, without the certification. Why is that?" I asked.

"We're just a small family farm. Becoming 'certified organic' costs a lot of money and hours, so it's really not that important to us. We've been growing organically since 1998. Our customers know that. And we stand behind our products."

Sounded good to me. But the proof is in the pudding, as they say.

"Can I taste one?" I asked.

Most of the vendors at this particular Farmers Market offered samples, so I was surprised when she looked at me a little sideways. But I was bringing dessert to a dinner party that night, and organic or not the berries had to taste good.

She offered me one small berry of each kind.

They were both amazingly delicious. They were what strawberries I've grown myself and eaten off the vine taste like. The Gaviotas were exactly what I was looking for.

"I'll take a flat."

Her face broke into a startled smile. Yes, I can be a difficult customer. Perhaps it comes from too much time in the kitchen, or too much time in New York. But if I taste the best berries of the season, I'm buying a bunch, certified organic or not.

One pint was gone before I even got back to my car.

Two days later I drove twenty miles out of my way to find a Harry's Berries stand at another area Farmers Market.

It makes sense to me that any small family farm would choose to eschew the "Certified Organic" process. For small operations, it IS cost prohibitive with regard to both time and money. As choosing "Organic" became less of a movement and more of a trend, the industry struggled to keep up with demand. Many of the small operations that had jumped through the "Certified Organic" hoops were acquired by bigger businesses. Then regulations regarding the definition of "Certified Organic" began to shift.

There are many misconceptions about food products labeled as "Organic" in the grocery store. While the USDA currently regulates the the "Certified Organic" labeling of food and fibers grown and manufactured in the United States, this article from the Washington Post earlier this week addresses the integrity of the Federal "Organic" label.

Foods labeled as "Organic" are not necessarily safer either. A search of the FDA website for "organic recall," yielded over 1000 links. Recalls listed for organic foods covered a wide range including nuts, popcorn, granola bars and other snacks, jarred baby food, dry baby cereal, fresh and frozen tofu products, chocolate candy bars, fresh produce, and eggs. Reasons listed for recalled products range from potential salmonella contamination, potential botulism contamination, potential allergen contamination, package mislabeling, choking hazards, foreign object contamination (i.e. metal, glass, etc), and lead.

And so I stand by long-time position that local usually is the best best choice (and by "local" I don't mean the nearest Whole Foods grocery store). If you have personal contact with the folks that grow the produce, collect the eggs, or "bring in" the pigs, you'll have a direct connection to the food itself. If those folks are anything like the folks at Harry's Berries, they'll stand behind the integrity of their product because they take personal pride in it (and depend on its quality and your satisfaction for their livelihood).

And after reflecting a bit in my post-berry stupor, it occurred to me that I had tried these berries years ago, again while visiting friends in the area. It was the name of the berries that finally rang a bell: Gaviota. That's also the name of a beach in Santa Barbara County, a perfect harbor for many a clandestine adventure of youth (one of which may or may not be my own), memories of which may be as sweet as these strawberries, and just as satisfying.