Woman in Real Life

I've said it before - the strawberry season is so short in Ontario, I hate to miss it. It lasts maybe a week to 10 days and that's it! So, we go to the farm just as soon as we can. This week, our only free day fell on a gloomy Saturday, with a 60 per cent chance of rain in the forecast. It was also pretty hot, hence my little girl's shorts with rain boots combination.

We dropped my son off at a friend's birthday party and headed for the farm. I made the mistake of writing down simple (seemingly simple anyway) directions and not consulting a map. One wrong turn made and we ended up driving about 30 km out of our way. A little head kept popping up in the back, my anxious girl calling out, "Are we lost?"


It was all for the best, it seems, because by the time we reached the farm we were greeted with beautiful sunshine.


With all the time spent in the car, we were rather hungry and the permitted "sampling" turned into the forbidden "eating."

Although I prefer to wash fruit first, I'm comforted by the fact that it's a chemical-free strawberry farm.






 

The strawberries were so plentiful that I couldn't resist coming away with three full baskets (10 litres total). I spent quite a bit of time today washing strawberries, freezing strawberries and preparing strawberry jam and vegan strawberry ice cream. We still have a whole basket to use up! The kids are asking for strawberry sorbet, so that's up next.

I'll have recipes for you in the next few days. In the meantime, try these simple strawberry muffins.

How long does your strawberry season last? Do you take advantage of it?