The first bite of strawberry season was exquisite. Jack and I eat strawberries year round but the difference between eating a January strawberry from faraway and stored for days or weeks, and eating a mid-February strawberry picked yesterday in Florida is like night and day. A real, in season strawberry, is incredibly sweet with only the slightest bit of crunch.
Strawberries have been cultivated for centuries. Charles V of France is said to have had 1200 strawberry plants growing in the royal garden in the 1360s. Today’s hybrid strawberry (big, plump, red and delicious) was first developed in France in 1750. It is a cross between the wild strawberry of eastern North America and a strawberry from Chili and the results changed strawberry cultivation forever.
The small wild strawberry still grows throughout the United States and is as sweet a wild berry as you’ll ever taste. Don’t confuse the true wild strawberry, which has a white bloom, with it’s unrelated friend, the Indian strawberry which has a yellow bloom, a tasteless berry and is overly abundant in too many places.
Strawberries are one of the fruits most easily grown by the home gardener. I say Go for it! although I have to admit that I have had an abysmal lack of success in growing strawberries. The plants do fine, as long as I keep them watered and weed free. But every time the fruits begin to show a bit of red, it seems to be party time in my back yard. Squirrels and chipmunks, moles and slugs pull up a chair and sit down to feast. 
I can’t pick the berries early to avoid this, as strawberries do not continue to ripen after being picked. I could put out a net, as I do with my blackberries, but I don’t really want black netting all over the ground in my back garden. I could just be philosophical and “share” but I don’t want to. I have too many squirrels in my back yard anyway.
So, instead, I buy at the market or grab the grandkids and go “pick our own” at one of the organic farms near by. This is one time that I am content to let someone else do the work and I’ll reap the harvest!
You can eat strawberries morning, noon and night. The following is one of our favorite recipes. Enjoy!
Strawberry and spinach salad
- Fresh organic spinach (or any other combination of greens)
- Sliced, organic strawberries
- Crumbled goat cheese (or blue cheese)
- Chopped pecans
Mix and toss with poppy seed dressing (recipe following)
Poppy seed dressing:
- 1 cup light olive oil
- 1/2 cup balsamic vinegar
- 1/2 – 3/4 cup honey
- 1/4 cup sesame seeds
- 1/4 cup poppy seeds
- 1/2 teaspoon dry mustard
- 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
- 1 teaspoon minced onion. Place in blender or VitaMix and blend until well mixed. Refrigerate left overs.