Parkesdale Market & Farms in Plant City Florida – Strawberry Shortcake

Published on 02/28/23: It’s Florida Strawberry Festival time! As part of my #LovingStPeteDayTrips series, I’ll post about the festival itself shortly. Pictures from a previous visit and details of what to expect at this popular festival in Plant City. First, if you’re ever in that general area, consider grabbing a famous strawberry shortcake at the 3rd generation, Parkesdale Market!

The Famous Parkesdale Market

Who’s familiar with Parkesdale Market or enjoys a good strawberry shortcake? “Served fresh from the fields, sweet, sliced berries sit atop a bed of shortcake with a healthy dollop of whipped cream as garnish.” The Parkesdale shortcake is indeed famous, though their market offers so much more! Plus, there’s a large, shaded garden patio with tables to enjoy whatever you purchase. Rated an excellent 4.7/5 on Google with 1000’s of reviews, our family thoroughly enjoyed and can confirm it’s reasonably priced. Note the fresh strawberry shortcake is only available from January 2nd – Mid April, during the strawberry harvest. The cost is $7 for the loaded version w/ ice cream ($6 for the basic).

Strawberry Shortcake and Much More

The Parkesdale market, plants, strawberry shortcakes, strawberry cookies, shakes, plus the Strawberry Throne for pictures, just a few of their popular items! Thanks to follower Lynn Bittner for noting this ‘delicious day trip’ to mix things up. We paired it with a visit to Keel and Curley winery! Stay tuned for more on our winery experience. For now, here’s the details on family-owned Parkesdale Farms!

Parkesdale Farms History

Parkesdale Farms began in 1956 with the first 10 acres of strawberries planted by founder Roy Parke, Jr. In time, the farm expanded into hundreds of acres of strawberries, citrus, and vegetables. They also built out nurseries to grow plants, which today produce over 1 million vegetables and other plants annually, which are then shipped nationwide. That’s incredible growth for a family farm – they’re certainly doing something right!

Parkesdale Market History

As to how and when the market itself came about. I read that in 1969, Roy’s daughter Cheryl and her husband Jim decided to open the market you see today. While it started small, today it’s the largest produce, citrus and strawberry market in Florida! Since 2007, their son Jim and his wife Xiomara began pitching in to assist and carry on the family tradition.

Parkesdale prides itself on reasonable produce prices, very high quality, and freshness that “supermarkets simply can’t compete [against]”. While it was a bit of a novelty for our family, evidently locals routinely shop the market for their produce needs. The busiest season is November thru April, during the heart of strawberry season, however there’s plenty of other options during the “off season”.

Jams, Jellies, Plants and More

While you’re onsite, you’ll find all kinds of plants, gourmet jellies, jams, coconut toast spread, seasoning and of course all types of produce. We bought some fresh peanuts to boil, yum! They also sell “bare root strawberry plants”, though are all sold out for the season. They’ll be available again in October.

Address: 3702 W. Baker Street, Plant City, FL

Google Reviews: 4.7/5 with 4776 Reviews

Hours: Nov until early April: 9am-6pm every day. May-Oct: 9am-6pm from Wednesday-Sunday.

Phone: 813-754-2704

Website: https://parkesdale.com/

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