During the summer, each month brings the availability of a different fruit or vegetable. On Vancouver Island, May/June is the time to go strawberry picking.
Strawberry Facts and Tips (source)
- Select plump, firm, fully red berries. The small berries are often the most flavourful.
- One cup of strawberries contains only 43 calories.
- Unripe berries will not ripen once picked.
- U-pick strawberries are much healthier than store-bought. Consumer reports says store bought strawberries have so many pesticide and fungicide residues on them that they don't recommend you eat them!
- It takes about 10 to 15 minutes to pick a quart, if the berries are reasonably plentiful.
- Strawberries were originally called “strewberries” because the fruit was “strewn” amongst the leaves of the plant. (When Léah was very little, she called them “straw babies”.)
- Cultivation of strawberries began in Europe in the 1300’s, but the berry only became very popular in the early 1900’s in California.
- You can easily freeze berries that you can not use right away - just wash, cut the hulls off and pop them into a Ziploc bag, removing as much air as possible. The berries will keep for many months frozen without air.
