Summer Strawberries!
I love summertime. It’s my favourite, for many reasons. One of which not the least of which is STRAWBERRIES!!!!!!!!!!
I love love love strawberries. Love them. Could eat them everyday (and I have been.)
And I don’t mean the shipped-from-California or Florida ones that have sat on truck for 5 days after being picked and processed etc etc. I mean the grown 10 minutes from my house kind that you get in the local market for those three magical weeks late June to early July.
The smell of fresh strawberries…that ‘pop’ when you first close your lips around one…there just isn’t anything like it.
When we were kids, we had a giant garden. Mom grew everything…..from parsnips to squash to potatoes to rhubarb, you name it, she could grow it. Dad would be out there labouring away and when I was a teenager I *hated* to work in the dirt. Hated it. Now, I can’t wait to get diggin’ and growin.
One of my favourite things my Mom used to make was something she called “Rhubarb Stew”. It was always cooked on the stovetop and served warm with a lot of sugar on top.
I was surprised years ago the first time I made it, how simple and easy Rhubarb Stew was to make. You cut up a bunch of rhubarb into inch size cubes, dump it in a giant pot, add a cup of sugar and let it cook down, down , down until it’s a gooey yummy sludgey rhubarby stew. Simple, easy, delicious.
I’m big fan of the Slow Food Movement and in the summer, try to grow as much as I can, and freeze and can (when possible). There’s a FABULOUS market in my home town Briwood Farm Market that I visit when I’m home to visit. Almost everything is as local as can be, and so fresh and so good…can’t say enough wonderful things about it. Even if I still call it “Giffords” from time to time. I’m old. I forget.
So….. having bought 4 pints of strawberries, they needed to be used. I ate a bunch, froze a bunch, and used a bunch in my lovely New Rhubarb Stew!



