(Above Video courtesy of Dole)
Last month I had the opportunity to head out to Monterey, California to spend time with some key people from Dole Fresh Vegetables as part of the Dole Salad Bloggers Summit. As is the case with many blogging trips, I was surrounded by some very talented and genuine bloggers.
Joining me at the Dole Salad Bloggers Summit was – Shaina, Shanna, Kathy, Romy, Debra, Cheryl, Jaden, Maggy, Dana and Brooke. We had such a fun time together. As much as I’d love to talk about these fab bloggers….
…and the incredibly beautiful city of Monterey, California…
…and the food, the wonderful glorious food…
…I want to get to the heart and soul of this trip, which was Dole. We were wined and dined and treated extremely well on our trip to Monterey, but you know what? The part of this trip that has stuck with me and will stick with me for a long time to come was standing out in the middle of an iceberg lettuce field, surrounded by row after row of perfectly maintained lettuce. I watched the step by step process as the workers in the field gently pulled the lettuce from the ground, removed any damaged leaves, bagged it and put it into the box which was then taken out on a truck to head to our grocery store shelves. To our grocery store shelves! Straight from that field in Monterey, California.
We all know that Dole is a big household name, but what I discovered on this visit was that Dole is not “corporate”. They have partnered with small family farmers all over the region to grow the freshest vegetables possible. The employees at Dole are passionate about their product, the workers in the field are treated well and have a legacy of tenure and the farmers take great pride in the vegetables they grow. Beyond picking up salad from the grocery store, I honestly never thought much about what it takes to get the lettuce to our kitchen table. As a family who has salad on our table almost every night, I am thankful that Dole has opened my eyes to the story behind what nourishes our bodies each and every day.
For an inside peek at our trip, make sure to check out the video Dole put together above. I want to give special thanks to The Clement Monterey for the spectacular service and beautiful accommodations, The Sardine Factory and Le Bicyclette restaurants for the unforgettable food and for the team at Dole for the hospitality and experience.
Thanks to Dole, it is easy for our family to enjoy salad on a regular basis. I don’t know about you, but I know we wouldn’t eat as much salad as we do if it weren’t for Dole’s bagged lettuce and salad kits. Whether we are eating it straight out of the bag or sprucing it up with something a little fancier, Dole has been and will be a big part of helping our family to eat our veggies!
For the picture above I spruced up a package of Dole Spring Mix lettuce by adding a few delicious ingredients. In individual parfait glasses layer the following: Spring Mix Lettuce, halved cherry tomatoes, crumbled bacon, diced hard boiled eggs and shredded cheddar cheese. Top with a drizzle of creamy ranch dressing. Make sure to leave a little room at the top for “tossing” to mix up the salad and added ingredients. Enjoy!
Dole sponsored my travel and accommodations, however all opinions expressed within this post are my own. Thanks to Cheryl from TidyMom for the use of some of the blogger pictures!
What a beautiful city. How awesome that you were able to visit 🙂 I love bagged salads. It seems like a million years ago that you had to buy lettuce from the store, bring it home and cut it up, send it through the salad spinner, then continue to prep all of the other ingredients. I love being able to buy a bag and get on with preparing the other parts of dinner. 🙂
What a fun trip!
Love the Clement. Had lunch at their C Restaurant last week. Fabulous! Sounds like you had a great trip and tour.
Looks like a fabulous trip! We love Dole Pineapple 🙂
Beautiful trip Kristen!
This sounded like such a great trip and opportunity when I was reading the updates via twitter but seeing this post actually brings the trip to life. The fields of lettuce are incredible as is finding out that local farmers are the heart behind the product. Love this!
awe, now you’ve got me missing Monterey again!!!
Great recap to a great trip!!
Sounds like such a great trip Kristin. I must visit Monterey someday….Think I am seeing you in Utah soon?
Looks like a lot of fun – and all female – was this intentional?
We soo miss the bag salads! Really do …
But I love your creativity with putting the salad in a glass !! Might encourage my kiddos to try it a bit more!!
I love those trips for the bonding especially : )
I love that city…so glad you got to head west (on their dime). It looks as though you had such a great time. It’s nice to get away sometimes but coming home is always that much sweeter!
Wonderful trip and I loved your enthusiastic post! Good to read so many nice things about one of my favorite companies.
I was just there and it was a very beautiful town. We ended up eating in Carmel, but we did get to walk around Monterey. Great post with some lovely pictures here!
Beautiful post, Kristin! Thanks for coming, and we’re happy we were able to share our passion with you!
Bag salad has totally changed our meal time. Now anyone who is doing dinner prep can get salads ready and everyone gets to add what they want to their bowl. Your trip sounded so wonderful as I was experiencing it along with you through Twitter but the photos really brought it to life. I shared your post on my Mom’s Recipes Facebook page.
I like salad ever!!Especially vegetable salad…Monterey, California is really a beautiful city…
Sounds like an amazing trip! A great chance to see how a company we all perceive as corporate really works – thanks for sharing what you learned while you were there!
It sounds like you had an amazing trip Kristen 🙂 Thank you so much for the glimpse behind the scenes with Dole. The care that they have for their product shines through in your post. xoxo
This brings it all back Kristen – it was a great trip and now I’m missing everyone!
Oh! I just happened to scroll down and I saw this post. I read in our paper that food bloggers had come to my hometown! I live in South Salinas, and I work in Pacific Grove. Cannery Row is 5 minutes from my job, but I avoid it– like the plague– during tourist season. I feel so blessed to have so much locally grown produce year-round. It always makes me smile to read about being coming to visit my Monterey Peninsula paradise– that I am fortunate enough to call “home”. Sorry I missed y’all. I would have enjoyed meeting visiting bloggers!