 We're here at Barnhill Orchards in Lone Note County. We're learning about farm-to-table agriculture from the farm where the strawberries are grown here at Barnhill Orchards all the way to the table at Trio's Restaurant. Follow us along. Well, what makes your strawberries stand out? I believe it's that organic matter. The better you take care of the ground, the better products you're going to get off that ground. Most people don't realize that these are actually planted in the fall. We get them in the middle of October when we plant them. It's getting late in the year. We're starting to get into cool days. An object is to grow the plant up and it'll grow maybe five or six leaves and then it gets too cold and they go dormant again. And they kind of sit there and wait until spring. Alright, so how long does a plant produce fruit? Well, here in Arkansas, it depends on the weather. Yeah. Arkansas weather is a... A California will plant and pick for eight months. Right, right. But, you know, the part between freezing and 80 degrees isn't very big window and it's usually May. And because May is traditional in strawberry season, otherwise it gets too hot and the berries developing too fast and it's real soft. Because the nighttime, it's the night temperature that makes a berry. Anyway, the secret to having a good taste in strawberries is to let it get right before you pick it. Okay. You know, the stuff in California, they're picking ones that are just barely turning red by the time they get here, they're fully red, but they're still... But they're not as, would you say, like, you're not getting as much flavor or...? Well, I'd say no. I mean, as soon as you pick a strawberry, it's starting to try to decompose. You know, it's going... It's not being fed anymore. Right. And if you let it get to the peak of ripeness and then pick it, then, you know, I'm not trying to ship these anywhere. I'm picking the day and selling the day. And I don't have to hold them or anything, so I can let them stay here to the best they're ever going to get. I mean, I want every cousin to have the best strawberry I've ever put in my mouth. I wanted to know more about your relationship with local restaurants, trios, for instance. What's the importance been like at that point to you? We've been working with trios probably for about, I don't know, I think my dad started the relationship probably about 20 or 30 years ago, he'll tell you. He did. He said 1986. 1986. He loves Cappy. And I've been doing deliveries out there, I would guess for about the last 10 years. And do y'all have a lot of relationships with restaurants in that area? Yeah, some of the restaurants that we do, we'll do Root Cafe, we do all the Yellow Rocket restaurants like Lost 40 and the Big Orange and all those ones. And that's several other ones. Of course, we do Cappy and several other restaurants. Well, the relationship with restaurants for farmers is it's very important. They give us the stability that we need to always know we can have a certain set of products that we're going to be able to bring in and sell to them each week. So that kind of tells us how we're going to plant and it kind of gives us that steady source of income. So they are very, very important to what we do. We're here with Cappy Peck, owner of TRIO's in Litterock. Cappy, thank you for having us. We're here today to talk about your strawberry shortcake. But more importantly, your relationship with local farmers. How important that is to your business? It's vitally important. We built our reputation on the whole farm to table concept before it was the cool thing. I mean, back in the 80s and and I grew up in the hotel business and my favorite childhood memories were going with my grandfather and father to the curb market in North Litterock. I mean, this was in the 50s. I'm old and seeing with the local farmers, learning how to pick the perfect melon, the greens, the peas, the tomatoes. So this is just ingrained in me. So we opened TRIO's in 86. It was important for me to connect with local farmers to support them and help the economy. And bottom line is everything tastes better if it's grown right here in our native soil. That's right. So your relationship with kind of your berry farmers, because you you get it from multiple farms. We do, we do. We started this year with Barnhill orchards. I buy a lot from them. They grow the Chandler berry, which is one of my very favorites. And then we I think it's been almost two weeks since we started strawberry shortcake season and we've already purchased over a thousand pounds of local berries. Currently, we just saw a couple of hundred pounds roll in from Cadrin Crest orchards and Guy Arkansas. We bought thirty three hundred pounds from them last year. And so we're they're important to us and we are important to them. It's all connected and nothing as good as a local berry. Well, maybe the local tomato. OK, they're they're they're close. They're very close. Well, awesome. Well, I would love to see this strawberry shortcake and maybe you can run through with us in the kitchen some more about it. And maybe I can have a bite. Well, Cappy, that strawberry shortcake looks amazing. How long have you been making the strawberry shortcake here? We've been making strawberry shortcake here for about thirty four years. We opened in 1986 and this has been a signature dessert from day one with local berries. Well, do you mind showing me how you maybe assemble one? Sure. This is southern shortcake, so it's not a sponge cake or ladyfingers or a biscuit. It's short because short refers to the amount of fat compared to flour. So this is pretty crumbly, kind of equal parts of butter and flour and ice cold water. And then the star, of course, we just cap, wash and slice the local berries and let them sit for just a few minutes so they get nice and juicy. We layer that on the shortbread platform. And then we top it with a little bit of whipped cream that's slightly sweetened. And then we finish it off with a little more juice and it's a plate of local heaven. And we I cannot tell you how popular this is. It's been so busy the last two weeks because we just put the shortcake on and people are lining up in droves for the Arkansas strawberry shortcake. I'm going to make you try it. Oh, please make me. I need a spoon stat. OK, try that. And, you know, we've got some options that people are gluten free. We've got somebody that makes a gluten free platform for us. Get some juice. OK, you've got to get a bite of everything. How good is that? So good. So good. Have you come come out the trio, get a strawberry shortcake? Oh, check this out. Look, I just walked in the door. Another 250 pounds of strawberries from the Adrin Crest Orchards. I swear we didn't time that up. It's just what happened. But yeah, if you can come to Trios, get a strawberry shortcake, check out all of our local farmers in the berries. Thank you so much for having us, Cappy. We appreciate it. You're very welcome. And we'll see you all on the next Farm to Table.