Riego Road Strawberry Stand

It's Father's Day, and we are paying homage to our much-loved personal sperm donors who have populated our families. This year, I wanted to do something extra-speshul for the man who contributed half of my "XX" in celebration of all that he has been to me and in gratitude for his ongoing recovery from a quadruple bypass -- and since I can't afford a set of Pings -- I'm cooking dinner.  Picked up the lobster at Price Club yesterday; got the Harris Ranch steaks today; and went to the Riego Road Strawberry Stand for the key ingredient in fresh strawberries and ice cream.

We are spoiled in Sacramento County because for decades we have had the finest tasting fresh strawberries in the nation.  There was an era when strawberries grown in Florin were shipped across the nation.  That was before the white-pith, gigantic, no-taste strawberries from Watsonville claimed the market. Watsonville strawberries make pretty chocolate-covered strawberries, but they don't taste like a strawberry should.  Nope.  I want the red-to-the-core, juicy, vine-ripened-strawberry filled with sun-kissed sweetness and picked in its prime.  In my opinion, there is no second day in the life of a perfect strawberry, only one peak day and that is the day the berry is picked.  That is why no store-bought berry can ever match a strawberry stand berry.

I go to the Riego Road stand -- is a nice country drive (like the one's I used to take with my dad) through rice fields, cattails growing in irrigation ditches, and an occasional white heron flying overhead.  Take I-5 North to the Highway 99 turnoff to Marysville; proceed down the 99 to Riego Road; turn right on Riego until the three-way stop at Pheasant Grove.  There is a little strawberry stand on the right across from a mini mart.  The stand is run by a very nice Asian family that has been farming strawberries for almost two decades.  $1.50 a basket, which may seem high, but can you really put a price on ambrosia?  The berries are clean and shiny ripe.

Happy Father's Day, guys!  You all deserve a bowl of strawberries!