If you were a kid in North Carolina in the last 40 years or so, you may recall a particular giant strawberry stopping by your elementary school. Her name is Suzy Strawberry and she’s been celebrating North Carolina’s strawberry industry for the last four decades.
From where she came from to what she’s up to now, here are five things you may not know about Suzy Strawberry.
Suzy Strawberry was born in the 1980s.
In partnership with the North Carolina Strawberry Association, the NCDA&CS Marketing Division created Suzy Strawberry in the 1980s as a way to introduce children to North Carolina strawberries “in a fun way,” according to Kevin Hardison, NCDA&CS marketing specialist.
“Suzy Strawberry was really a fun and vibrant addition to our staff, and she’s been very popular since the ’80s,” Hardison said. “She’s been going to different farms, schools and other locations across the state. And she’s had a fan following for years.”
Suzy Strawberry is just one of a whole cast of commodity characters.
Suzy Strawberry was created as part of a marketing project called “Down on the Farm,” which partnered with North Carolina commodity groups to celebrate our state’s agriculture industry by creating characters for the various products grown in our state, Hardison said.
The cast eventually included several notable characters, such as Walter E. Melon, Kernel Corn, Vegetable Man, Bonnie Blueberry and others.
She’s a YouTube star.
More than a decade ago, Suzy Strawberry starred in a series of YouTube videos, both alone and alongside her fellow commodity characters. Suzy Strawberry worked to reach North Carolinians and promote a healthy lifestyle, complete with fresh North Carolina fruits and vegetables.
You can get an inside look at Suzy Strawberry’s life by finding the videos on the NCDA&CS YouTube page.
Suzy Strawberry serves as an ambassador for the N.C. Farm to School program.
Eventually, Hardison said, Suzy Strawberry and the rest of the “Down on the Farm” cast were rebranded to represent the N.C. Farm to School program. The program was founded in 1997 to work to get fresh North Carolina fruits and vegetables into North Carolina public schools.
Eastern North Carolina strawberries and Western North Carolina apples were the first crops piloted in the program, and now several North Carolina commodities are part of the program, such as blueberries, watermelons, cantaloupes, tomatoes, sweet potatoes, peaches and more.
Today, there are characters to promote many of the North Carolina fruits and vegetables that make their way to our schools through the N.C. Farm to School program.
She still makes appearances across the state.
While she has had a 40-plus-year career with NCDA&CS, Suzy Strawberry hasn’t retired yet. She still makes appearances at farmers markets, schools and farms across North Carolina.
Like North Carolina strawberries, Suzy Strawberry has a peak season. You’re most likely to find her out and about from April to July.