Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Have a berry good time! Annual Strawberry Fest returns

California Strawberry Festival returns to Ventura County Fairgrounds on May 16 and 17
Caroline Feraday
/
KCLU
California Strawberry Festival returns to Ventura County Fairgrounds on May 16 and 17.

Ventura County is one of the biggest strawberry-growing regions in the state, producing 36 million trays of the juicy red fruit annually.

Many consider Oxnard the strawberry capital of the world. An annual festival celebrating the fruit is returning this weekend.

"The strawberries of the Oxnard Plain thrive in our cool and moderate weather. So this year's crop is really strong," said Greg Berini, the chair of the California Strawberry Festival, which started in Oxnard but has now grown to fill Ventura County fairgrounds.

"We have our growers on site at the festival. You're not going to get any fresher strawberries. They literally go from the field to the festival," he said.

Berini added that the humble strawberry is worth celebrating, as well as all the growers who work so hard.

" It's really a mainstay of our county, and the festival was started to really celebrate the whole strawberry industry."

The California Strawberry Festival is May 16 and 17 at the Ventura County Fairgrounds.

Caroline joined KCLU in October 2020. She won LA Press Club's Audio Journalist of the Year Award for three consecutive years in 2022, 2023 and 2024.

Since joining the station she's also won 12 Golden Mike Awards, 8 Los Angeles Press Club Journalism Awards, 4 National Arts & Entertainment Journalism Awards and three Regional Edward R. Murrow Awards for Excellence in Writing, Diversity and Use of Sound.

She started her broadcasting career in the UK, in both radio and television for BBC News, 95.8 Capital FM and Sky News and was awarded by Prince Philip for her services to radio and journalism in 2007.

She has lived in California for 13 years and is both an American and British citizen and a very proud mom to her daughter, Elsie.