I don't know what is.Why, yes, it was the hottest day of the year yesterday, something like 100 degrees outside and a relatively cool 85 in the house. But what else was I going to do with a full flat of delicious, fragile Oregon Hood strawberries?
It starts out pleasantly enough every June: homemade strawberry ice cream, strawberries dipped in chocolate, strawberries gobbled plain while sitting on the porch. I even tried a couple of new recipes this year: Strawberries covered with balsamic and honey then topped with whipped marscapone and cream. Arborio rice pudding with strawberry preserves and sugared almonds (from Ivy Manning's awesome book, The Farm to Table Cookbook).
But by about four weeks in, it starts to get ugly. The family starts to show signs that they're reaching the strawberry breaking point. When I say, "Let's go to the farmer's market and get some strawberries," my husband suddenly has something important to do in the garage and SB, not yet old enough to make up excuses, defends herself in classic almost-four-year-old style by pretending not to hear me. When I drag everyone to the farm to pick berries on a gorgeous Friday morning, I'm met with grim, resigned expressions that say, "Mom's crazy but don't antagonize her, because it could get even worse."
An insurgency?!? Are you guys kidding me? These are Oregon strawberries, people. Once a year and they're gone--gone! Must. Get. Them. Must. Eat. Them. Must. Can. Them. Now!
So this week, I force fed the family strawberries in every shape and form: on cereal and in yogurt for breakfast, on salad for dinner, and with chocolate and ice cream for dessert (okay, the last bit wasn't met by much resistance at all). And I had to put up at least a few of them, even on the hottest day of the year, because I'd just taken this super-fun preserving class.
But I might be done with strawberries for the season--a sure sign that July is just around the corner. Raspberries, anyone?
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3 comments:
They will look back reminiscently at those strawberries come zucchini season. Welcome to blogland!
Actually, their already looking fondly back at those strawberries since their practically gone! We stopped at the farmer's market on the way home from work today, and only saw a few pints here and there. Sigh.
I'm, too, ready for raspberries. I'm pretty sure that strawberries are done for the most part. There might be a few left in the fields, but next week raspberries will be in full season in NY and I'm ready to make some jam!
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