Jun 14th, 2007
Strawberry summer
Martin is not a very common name these days, but I happen to know two different Martins. To keep them straight, I refer to them as “Martin the lawyer” (a Boston-area friend whom I met through another friend) and “Martin the Swiss guy.” I’ve been friends with the latter for nearly two decades, ever since he was an exchange student at my high school. A few years later, I studied at a Swiss university for a year and spent some time with him in his own country. He did a Ph.D. in computer science at Åbo Akademi University in Finland. While he was there, he learned Finnish and told me about the Finnish celebration of “strawberry summer.” I can understand how, in a northern country with long winters, strawberries that herald the arrival of the short summer are cause for celebration. Now “strawberry summer” always comes to mind when I eat fresh strawberries.
Last Saturday Jan, Sylvia, and I went to one of those pick-your-own farms. It’s strawberry season right now–and, really, it’s hard to find something that beats fresh strawberries.
Considering how many strawberries we ate in the field, I’m amazed we were able to fill up our two boxes. The total haul: over thirteen pounds.
Some strawberries were washed and made into strawberry ice cream (following Ben and Jerry’s recipe).
Lots were eaten out of hand, and some found their way into strawberry shortcake. But what to do with the rest? I decided to make some no-cook jam, but when I went to the store to get fruit pectin I could not resist the siren call of the box of canning jars on the shelf.
Here’s the result of a couple of hours of work. Unfortunately, the jam didn’t set up the way it’s supposed to–my fruit-to-pectin ration was off. Fortunately, preserved strawberry sauce is still delicious (on pancakes, waffles, ice cream, etc.)
I love the return of strawberry season each year. Everything you mentioned sounds so yummy!