Celebrating the strawberry: Fancy Farms Market's strawberry cookies

LAKELAND, Fla. - The Grooms family and their generations of customers have been celebrating the strawberry for half a century.

"Fancy Farms has been around for 50 years. My mom and dad started it 50 years ago, in 1974, and they are celebrating their 50th berry crop this year, which is amazing", said Kristi Grooms-Barnes. 

At the Fancy Farms Market in Lakeland, you can buy some of those fresh berries to take home, plus homemade treats, including their signature strawberry cookie.

"Our strawberry cookies are pretty popular. We do have people coming in every single day asking for them. The one thing that I love about our strawberry cookies are that they're my aunt's recipe. That, she has been able to give us that recipe that we can take and make all these great cookies with and give them to the community and let the community enjoy them," said Grooms-Barnes.

Creating that cookie magic is no small feat.

"In one day, we can make 100 dozen strawberry cookies. And last year, we made approximately 5,000 dozen cookies," said Grooms-Barnes.

Grooms-Barnes said one of the ingredients that's used in the cookie is a strawberry puree. The cookies are prepared both with and without walnuts.

"Every single one of our cookies have the special touch of hand rolling right into this delicious, powdered sugar. Our strawberry cookies are nice and cake," said Grooms-Barnes.

It's a family recipe that keeps one generation to another coming back.

"The word is out that we do have these delicious little jewels that we offer to the community. And everybody loves them," said Grooms-Barnes.

Fancy Farms Market is located at 5204 Drane Field Road in Lakeland.

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