IT’S JUNE! We’ve been waiting all year for the appearance of local strawberries! Those gorgeous, ruby-red all the way through, juicy beauties. They can’t be beat! Fingers crossed for some good, sunny weather to make them sweet and succulent.
I’m going to have to admit to being a strawberry snob! We just don’t buy strawberries unless they are local. In our books, the others just don’t make the cut!
At the Farmer’s Truck Market on Thursday, one of the vendors had some! We were having dinner guests from Toronto so I thought we should show off some local stuff. Eons ago when I needed a quick but amazingly good dessert, I would clean up some strawberries; put them in a pretty bowl and set out a bowl of sour cream and a bowl of golden sugar. So I did that again, except I changed up the sugar to a light Muscavado. All you do is place a dollop of sour cream on your plate, next comes a spoonful of the Muscavado, spear yourself a strawberry; dip into the sour cream, then into the sugar; some say waiting a bit until the sugar starts to melt is best, and what can I say…awesome! They loved it. We did too!
Now that the strawberries are here, it’s time for all sorts of things. My Mom loved strawberry shortcake except, she didn’t use biscuits for her version. She made a wonderful sponge cake which is what I like to do as well. Slice or quarter the berries; add a bit of sugar; let them stand a bit; whip up some whipping cream, slightly sweetened with sugar and add a touch of vanilla. Cut slices of sponge cake; place on plates, add some whipped cream, some of the berries, then more whipped cream. Like I said, we only eat strawberries in June, thank God! Yum, Yum…
Or, what about a strawberry and rhubarb pie or waffles with strawberries? I can hardly wait to get to the market on Saturday morning to score some more! Make your favourite sponge cake recipe and try my Mom’s version of strawberry shortcake.
Helpful links to Strawberry-Rhubarb Pie.
Oh my!!!!! Strawberries are just starting here & I can’t wait to pick some 🙂 Thanks for this great post Phyllis.
Hi Suze,
Glad you enjoyed the post! I remember my Mom going picking every June. She picked the most fabulous berries and then we ate like crazy. Of course, she always set aside a bunch for jam making. Love strawberry jam! Think I’ll make a pie this weekend (the recipe in the post), can hardly wait! Just like the olden days!