One of the wonderful things about frequenting the farmer's market on a regular basis (a new thing for me) is that when something new arrives, the excitement and enthusiasm is palpable. I already knew, after reading Lucy's Greenmarket Report, that strawberries were in but it wasn't until I got there that I realized how abundant, how fragrant and how beautiful the strawberries were.
I was there with Diana yesterday and we took advantage of the free strawberry samples placed out for passers-by. These strawberries are to supermarket strawberries what Marlene Dietrich is to Brittney Spears. That is to say: the real thing. I didn't buy any because I wasn't going straight home and I didn't want to lug them around all day, but tomorrow it's going to be a strawberry spree. I see strawberry jam, strawberry shortcake and strawberry rhubarb pie in my future.
8 Comments
oooohhhhhhh those are gorgeous
Posted by Christine | June 7, 2006 2:52 PM
Oh come on. You Photoshopped those photos, right? They can't be that gorgeous! Can they?
Posted by el-e-e | June 7, 2006 3:08 PM
Mmmm they look sooo good. I definitely need to spend some time in *my* local farmer's markets!
Posted by Vincci | June 7, 2006 8:46 PM
i fear i will turn into a strawberry each year when strawberries will come into season. i love them too much.
Posted by Emily | June 8, 2006 4:34 PM
Bought our second quart today at the Bowling Green Greenmarket. Can safely tell you these are juicy, sweet, bright red and likely to be the best strawberries you will find, unless you travel to the burbs to pick you own.
Posted by famdoc | June 8, 2006 4:58 PM
Dude are you rich? That sign says 1 pt for $6 and 2 for $10. Come to Jersey, the supermarkets here are brimming with Strawberries. Yesterday I got 2 pounds for $3 on sale. That would be $20 bucks if you bought them at the market and they are the same thing - STRAWBERRIES.
Posted by Theyank | June 8, 2006 5:09 PM
Wow that's a lot of strawberries! Im so jealous, because they are no longer in season here in the southern hemisphere... I miss strawberries.
But lucky for you guys up there!!
Posted by jenjen | June 11, 2006 12:10 AM
Theyank, I'm pretty sure those are quarts, not pints. Prices do vary from vendor to vendor at the market, but the going rate, as far as I can tell, has been $3.00-$3.50/pint and $6/quart. It's still not as cheap as the strawberries you picked up, but it's still better than $6/pint -- which, I will sheepishly admit, is not outside the realm of possibility for some greenmarket produce (not strawberries, but other, smaller-crop items, some of which are worth the price, some not).
Adam, did you ever get your strawberries? I bought a flat last weekend, along with 13 pounds of rhubarb, and turned every last one into jam. About halfway through hulling and slicing the strawberries*, I began wishing I could hold some back for pie, or for strawberry shortcake (Claudia Fleming has a recipe for strawberry shortcake with tarragon that sounds weird but is really wonderful), or anything that didn't involve washing, drying, hulling, slicing, tossing into a bowl, weighing and covering with sugar. But no, I soldiered on, and the resulting jam makes me glad I did.
Maybe I'll bump into you at the market one of these days? (Not this coming Saturday, alas, as I'll be out of town.)
*My new definition of "despondency" is "discovering how long it takes one to clean, hull and slice a quart of strawberries, then realizing that there are seven more quarts left in the flat."
Posted by Bakerina | June 11, 2006 7:59 AM