Fresh fruit and vegetables from highway stands can be one of the joys of travel, particularly in spring and summer. I recognized Chip Chao’s Chip Strawberry Farm stand when I saw him the other day south of Gridley next to Highway 99 — but I thought he was in the wrong place.
Chao once sold his fruit from a stand north of Chico, but when I stopped to sample a strawberry — which oozed juicy sweet — he explained that he lost his lease and moved to this 3-acre parcel north of Live Oak.
“I work hard to take care of them good,” Chao said of his strawberries. Chao drives to his little farm from Sacramento, arriving every morning at 5:30 a.m. to water and pick. The stand opens at 9:30 a.m., and from there Chao sells the strawberries, a strawberry jam his wife makes and cherries that he hauls from the Central Valley.