Strawberry Season

We are well into strawberry season now! I love strawberries, but they just aren't the same unless they are freshly picked, local strawberries. I do not really care for the imported strawberries that show up in supermarkets in the off-season, even in the dead of winter. They just don't taste as fresh, sweet, and juicy as in-season, local strawberries. That is why I enjoy strawberry season so much. I eat them fresh everyday, and bake as many things as I can with them, use the ones that get a little too ripe for jam, and still never get tired of strawberries. I guess it is because strawberry season is relatively short. Strawberries go well with so many different foods: chocolate, rhubarb, banana, cream, cheese, oats, ice cream, etc. Strawberries are probably my favorite berry, although that might change again once blueberry season rolls around. These days, strawberries seem to have evolved so much, you can find strawberries the size of apples! They used to be much closer in size to grapes, but now they can be huge. I prefer the smaller ones, the smaller, the sweeter, as they say. I will definitely be baking more with strawberries sometime soon. Here is a basket of delicious-looking strawberries from the local farmer's market.