The Branding Of Simple Berries

 Years ago it was a big deal to go strawberry and blueberry picking in June and early July. There was a thrill to getting baskets and and finding ruby and sapphire gems, stealing a few to nibble on while picking Not any more. Berries are now a year round food tat has been well branded and well cultivated.

Regular contributor julia Moskin wrote about this new way of seeing and selling simple fruit in today's New York Times Wednesday Food section. Branding fruit is nothing new. Dole did it with their pineapple in 1933 Chicquita branded their banana in 1944. However it's reached new heights with the Twenty-First Century. A popular company and staple in many produce aisles, Driscoll's now offers all sorts of berries year round. It used to be that any kind of berry, from blackberry to raspberry cane out during the summer  and early fall. Now comsumers can get them all year round whether for smoothies cakes, or just healthy snacking.They can be seen around the world, from Costcos in Korea to bakeries in Dubai. In just the past decade alone strawberries have gone from a fragile seasonal fruit to a worldwide refrigerator staple. Global production has tripled since 2000 according to research from the UN's Food and Agriculture. Berries are the fastest growing category in American produce.

Driscoll's is behind that growth. The company started out as a small multifamily farm in 1904, with Ed Reiter, a farmer from Alsace France and Ed Driscoll. Along with Thomas Loftus the three formed a partner ship to protect and promote strawberries in northern Shasta County, California, North of Sacramento.  Driscoll strawberries were first sold in San Franscisco. Every crate was  wrapped in ribbon, giving them the name Banner. Driscoll's started breeding new varieties of berries in the 1920's after a blight  and then patented them in 1957 after taking ten years to develop. Now there are panels to evaluate and rate everything about all the berries they produce. There are 210 strains of raspberries  p[produce but only two  will actually make it to market.  For example Maravilla raspberries many look great on the outside but taste tart dry or stiff. The mission across Driscoll's thirty-five test plots is to eliminate them. Try test not only for the overt sweetness and raspberry flavor but also undertones of cotton candy rose and banana to name a few. Also how they're grown is evaluated for easy picking  for the workers.

Berries are not what they used t9o be .Thanks to Driscoll's they['re an international brand that everyone , n o matter where they are can have. They;re not just fruit anymore.They're super fruit.