Every summer I imbibe to the point of hives. The problem is that Ontario grown berries are sooo much better than the tasteless imports and the season is just too darn short. That means that I have to gobble down a year's worth of berries in a few short weeks. Which leads to the hives. Benadryl pretty much takes care of them, though.
Today we were out walking in our neighbourhood and happened across some local berries at a little stand set up on the sidewalk. It seems that some Niagara farmers are growing the plants under row covers that keep the heat in and hasten ripening. What a clever way to draw out the length of the season!
We couldn't resist buying a quart. Our favourite way to eat strawberries is in strawberry shortcake. I always use homemade old fashioned shortcake biscuits, not the yellow spongy cake-things that the grocery stores try to pass off as shortcake worthy. There was no time today to bake biscuits, and there was no way that the berries would last in the house overnight, so I settled on whipping up some cream to top them off.
They weren't as delicious as middle of the season, freshly picked, still warm-from-the-field berries, but they were pretty darn good.
Ontario berry growers have a Facebook page where they're tracking how ripe the berries are. They expect the full season to open on June 10th. I'll be keeping my eyes peeled until then!
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