18. Strawberries!

Fresh luscious sweet plump ripe red PEI strawberries. Delicious. Delectable. Heavenly. The moment you bite into one and feel the sweet and very slightly sour or tart flavor oozing into your mouth is a moment you want to preserve…or repeat. Over and over and over again.

This is one of the things I look forward to in summer–when local strawberries are picked and brought to the market or supermarket. I have yet to go to a strawberry farm and pick all I want. That, I am positive, will be a delightful experience. Meanwhile, I enjoy fresh strawberries whenever I can get them.

Sure, we get the extra large strawberries from the US all year round. But they’re not always all that sweet. To be sure, there are the occasional properly ripened ones that are luscious and sweet to a fault. But the majority tend to be bland and crunchy, almost like eating a tart turnip, if they’re not overripe and mushy.

US strawberry next to a 4-inch paring knife

Now Canadian strawberries, and in particular, PEI strawberries, those are something else!

fresh summer 2011 Canadian strawberries

I have always been partial to fresh strawberries. Well, I love fresh fruit. There really isn’t anything like them. But strawberries. They bring back wonderful memories.

When I was pregnant with Bian, I craved strawberries. Mind you, they had to be fresh strawberries. Being in the Philippines back then, where strawberries were not native to the hot and humid lowlands, I had a hard time obtaining them, so they were a really special treat. The next alternative was whole frozen strawberries, which were available in the supermarket that I frequented. Again, that was not always available. So my third alternative was strawberry ice cream. Some nights, I would get up and look for one or the other, and heaven help anyone who was up at the time (or not) because I would not be able to get back to sleep without my strawberries.

I never craved that way before and never craved that way again. But oh, do I love strawberries! So every time there are fresh strawberries advertised in the weekly fliers, I go down to the nearest Sobey’s to get a pint or more of fresh strawberries!