Fresh strawberries

I have always been an advocate of fresh food, but I have recently experienced its importance first hand.

Last weekend I went strawberry picking at an organic farm. We ate a couple while we were there at the fields and they tasted incredible. There were the normal ones you get in the grocery store, but they had an incredible sweetness and tartness, and also these small warped ones that tasted so sweet, they were like candy.

At home, while I was washing off the dirt and taking off the stems, I would pop a couple in my mouth to get that fresh strawberry taste. It was sooo delicious. I froze a lot of them so that I will have the berries all summer long. And I kept some of the less ripe ones in the fridge to eat over the next few days. Now, I tasted those ones and thought, maybe they won't have the same sweet deliciousness as the super-ripe ones, but that was not the case. They were a little more tart, but the flavour was still very explosive.

Today, I am on the last of these fresh picked unfrozen berries - so this is Day 5 from being picked. They just don't taste the same anymore. They have taken on that blandness of grocery store strawberries. I don't know if they are that bad, but they have definitely lost a lot of the amazing character they had the first couple of days. I really shouldn't be surprised, but I am. It has really made me wonder if any of us know what really fresh food actually tastes like anymore.

I'm really glad I freeze my berries right away. I wish I could eat them all the same day, but this is the next best thing. This way, I also make one last batch of strawberry jam in the late Fall to remind me of summer. The smell in my kitchen is unbelieveable...almost makes me wish for Fall - but not quite.