Berry Season

It’s coming. Do you smell it in the air? The lilacs have passed by and we are heading into my favorite time of year—berry season. This represents a lot of things to me. As a kid it meant that after swimming and biking all day long, I’d head for home and see the most beautiful biscuits just waiting for dessert.

In my family we took strawberry shortcake seriously. My mother made the biscuits from scratch, while crushed strawberries, with just the right amount of sugar, waited in the fridge. After dinner she’d whip up fresh cream, lather the biscuit with butter, and assemble the short cake. They were amazing.

Now that I am a parent it’s not as much about the dessert as watching my kids pick the berries. Each year is different. The first years they ate more than we paid for (sorry Maxwell’s). They trudged along until they found the perfect berry to shove into their little mouths, letting the juice drip down their pudgy faces and onto their filthy shirts. As the years go by they pick more and delight in the process. This is their food! They worked for it. Smoothies taste better when you pick your own berries, homemade jam is better on a peanut butter sandwich, and yes, that strawberry shortcake tastes better when you plucked that berry right off the vine.

Once you tire of fresh strawberries you can freeze the rest for a tasty and healthy treat for months to come and get ready because the next berry is blueberries.

Teaching your children the importance of sustainability and supporting local businesses is important and even very young children can understand the concept. So, talk to your kids about the importance of eating local while heading out on your next strawberry-picking adventure and watch the children really embrace our local farms.

Click below for Local strawberry PYO farms-