Strawberry Dancing

If you haven't taken advantage of the bounties of the season, I suggest you head to your local farmers market and scoop up all the goodies you can! Spring is fraught with fresh, yummy produce just aching to be eaten. From asparagus and artichokes to rhubarb and strawberries. It's really incredible how spring brings forth beautiful, edible wealth! I went to the farmer's market last Saturday and stocked up on asparagus, carrots, cabbage, and more. It was wonderful!

But I digress... this post is specifically about strawberries and before I got off the bloggers deep end babbling on about how I love spring foods (and trust me, I could babble), I will get back to the point. I have a not-so-secret obsession with strawberry picking. Aside from desperately wanting to have my own garden/farm of wonderful foods to tend to and appreciate and EAT, which I'm pretty sure is just an excuse for me to play in the dirt no matter what age I am, I satisfy my craving for digging in the dirt by picking seasonal foods from You-Pick farms. This spring (well really just in the past month) I have picked strawberries 4 different times. Twice near my home, once near school, and once in my current town. Each time I have thoroughly enjoyed the direct farm-to-table bounty, and knowing that I am supporting local agriculture and taking responsibility for my food chain make me feel good. There is just something about talking to the farmers that makes you feel secure about the food you consume. (Instead of some of the produce in the grocery store that has to travel all around the world to get to you.)

But I digress yet again... Phil and Laura accompanied me on this particular strawberry picking trip. We had a blast surveying the rows and rows of berries and finding 3 beautiful baskets of plump, juicy ones. Most of them were consumed as is, but Laura did make a strawberry cake, and I made some strawberry bread with another bunch I picked near home.

I think I might freeze a bunch so I can have more throughout the summer! Yum!