It’s not just a Beatles song — in sunny California, huge fields of strawberries really do stretch as far as the eye can see. Welcome to Driscoll’s, home of the fresh strawberries that we’ve served in our fruit salads at Jason’s Deli for thirty years.

Five members of the Jason’s Deli team recently traveled to Monterey to attend the annual PMA Foodservice Convention and Exposition. The Produce Marketing Association (PMA) has been around since 1949, and its 2200 members represent every sector of the produce industry, from seeds to supermarkets and food service outlets.

“It’s a great learning opportunity and a way for us to meet and interact with our growers and distributors,” says Blake Parker, Chief Innovation Officer. This year the group toured Driscoll’s strawberry breeding facility as well as Earthbound Farms, which is where we get our organic spinach.

“The entire production facility at Earthbound is organic,” explains Blake. “And … Read More »

Hello folks,

We just returned from our annual trip to California to visit our produce growers and look for new and exciting items at a produce show. It was truly an amazing experience to stand in those fields of lush green and see what all goes into bringing that one head of lettuce or one strawberry to market.

A lot of time is spent in greenhouses searching for the right combination of plants to produce the highest quality possible thru natural cross breeding. It can take up to 5 YEARS from the first development of a seed variety to roll out for planting outside of test fields. As you may know, the farms transition to various areas of the country depending on the season. So a seed variety that does well in Salinas, CA may not do well in Yuma, AZ due … Read More »