Strawberries and Mint

Last Thursday I went to the apple factory to buy their last harvest of asparagus, picked that morning and laid to rest in huge plastic containers of water. The spears were between 1 - 2 feet long. I bought 8 lbs worth. However, while ruminating over and repenting the end of my beloved vegetable's season for another year, I noticed a few quarts of strawberries. The charming girl in braids behind the counter confirmed that, yes, indeed, these were the first pick of the season. Nature always sneaks up behind you with another sun kissed promise just when you start losing hope.

Fresh strawberries are good in all sorts of preserves and pies, cakes and tarts, but they are also exquisite trimmed and tossed with lemon juice, a sprinkling of sugar and chopped fresh mint. Delicious for breakfast and perfect after a summer dinner and a glass of gewurztraminer.

Comments

[llizard]

Try the strawberries with freshly ground pepper and lemon cider vinegar (or balsamic vinegar, if you're feeling extravagant)

We haven't yet seen any decent strawberries at our vegetable store in westend of Toronto but when we do... ooooh... I think a little creme fraiche might be in order as well!

[daphne]

you are so right! I forgot to add how delectable they are in salads matched with the pepperiness of arugula or the subtle acidic sweetness of balsamic. Hopefully not TOO long until they hit the west end markets of Toronto!

[llizard]

I never thought of adding them to salads! What a great idea. We have them with pepper and lemonjuice as a dessert.

Hope on, hope ever for our vegetable market. We have a new one on our high street. They really know how to choose things and always have very good stock and reasonable prices. The recent Ontario asparagus was great....

But I have a sneaking feeling that we may have to make a trek to a strawberry farm to get properly ripened strawberries. So often they seem to get picked very green - so they won't get too damaged in the shipping maybe?? Too bad for us. (I'm afraid that the way fruit is sold here in Ontario is one of my petpeeves. It's invariably unripe - invariably tasteless even after ripening on the shelf.)

[daphne]

if you have a car then all the better and you can make the trek to farmers markets (the strawberries here around Creemore are wild, small and indescribably SWEET). i'm sure the area around London/Niagara also must be ripening their crop about now. And all only an hour or so drive away but I will also hope on for you. Toronto summer produce grates on my nerves too.

[llizard]

We do all our grocery shopping on our bicycles. I do have a car but it just seems wrong to have to make a trek out to the country when it should be just as simple for the trucks supplying the Toronto produce stores to do the same thing in the other direction.

And I have to say that I'm a little afraid of making the trip and coming away with nothing. Late last summer just at the beginning and at the end of the peak of peach season, I had to drive to Niagara for meetings. Both times, on the way back to Toronto, I stopped at one of the roadside stands just outside of an orchard to get some peaches and ALL of them were hard as rocks and green. Why on earth would they pick them then? The second time, I did ask the woman at that particular stand why they were so unripe and she looked at me as if I were from Mars and gave me the "I just work here" answer.

(So sorry for ranting.)

[llizard]

I take it all back! ...just got back from the new vegetable store that is 5 minutes bike ride away. The Ontario strawberries smelled so good that I had to buy some. They are brilliant. Sweet, firm - but not too firm, red.

Now I'm especially embarrassed about my earlier ravings.