It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year

I love strawberry season. It is backbreaking, hand-staining, delicious and all-too-brief. Anyone who has only ever had those giant, flavorless, mid-winter strawberries from the grocery store has never had a real strawberry. My Earliglow, June-bearing strawberries are in their second productive year (planted spring 2006) and I'm hoping to harvest for at least two more years before I pull them up and begin harvesting from new beds I am planning to put in next year. This time last week, I picked my first scant quart of berries, some of which were not quite all red but by the next morning had improved in their looks. The rest of the week, I saved up almost all of the berries as a special treat for my daughter's Brownie troop for our camping trip. It was music to my ears to hear all of those eight-year old compliments about how sweet and tasty they were. Right now, I have about 4 quarts waiting to be picked.

My strawberries generally have been very prolific, and although you are supposed to tame those runners the plants put out during the growing season, I have been loathe to pull out any of them. As a result, picking strawberries from the mat of plants covering my 8 x 8-foot raised beds requires a kind of acrobatics. Oh, it's easy enough to pick those tantalizing ones hanging over the edges--the birds go for those first too, getting them right through the netting--but the ones in the center can be a challenge. My technique is to work each foot in between plants to find a bare patch of soil, then bend and crouch to pick without shifting or moving my feet. It is most convenient to have my children or a helper nearby, to whom I occasionally holler and ask them to take full quart after quart and give me empty ones so I don't have to climb back out. I picked well over two gallons each day over the course of three days last year.

My back and my calves begin to complain after a half hour or so in this position, but there are just so many berries hiding that you ignore the cramps in a picking frenzy. Pull back the tops of the glossy green plants and there are three times as many as those peeking out from the edges. To let even one rot on the ground because it was left unpicked seems like a sin. Unlike asparagus, snap peas and even cucumbers, we never seem to tire of having strawberries on a daily basis. Last year, I put up over 40 pints of strawberry jam--enough to give away and still have plenty for PB & J sandwiches all year. I like to freeze whole berries on sheet trays, then bag them up to use in yogurt smoothies and to add to applesauce in the fall.

But by far the biggest treat is my mother's Strawberry Pie. It has a graham cracker crust, with a cream cheese filling, topped by whole fresh strawberries and a strawberry glaze. I remember making it for my husband on one of our first Valentine's Days together. Even though it was made with pale ghosts of real strawberries in February, I still think it helped me seal my place in his heart. Making strawberry pie requires some hard work, and a lot of patience. The crust, filling and glaze are made from scratch. You have to search for about 25 perfect, medium-sized strawberries to adorn the top in a circle or spiral design. But the hardest part is that even after all is made and put together, you have to let it sit in the refrigerator for at least 4 hours if not over night so that the filling and glaze can firm up. More than once, we have cut into freshly-made strawberry pie and ignored the filling and glaze spilling out onto the pie plate. Tastes just as good, even when it looks like slop.

Here is Mom's recipe, along with her graham cracker crust. I'll post a picture as soon as I make my first pie this weekend!

Strawberry Pie

8 oz. cream cheese, softened
1 c. strawberries, chopped
1 c. sweetened condensed milk
1/2 c. confectioner's sugar
1/3 c. lemon juice (2)
1 c. water
1 tsp. vanilla
3/4 c. sugar
1 T. cornstarch
approx. 30 whole strawberries

Whip cream cheese until fluffy; add sweetened condensed milk, lemon juice and vanilla. Pour
into cooked graham cracker crust. Chill 3 hours or over night.
Mix whole strawberries with confectioner's sugar; let stand. Cook berries with water; press
through sieve. Mix sugar and cornstarch; add to strained strawberry mixture. Cook until clear.
Pour thickened strawberry mixture over cream cheese layer of pie. Top with whole strawberries,
pointed end up.

Graham Cracker Crust:

20 graham squares
1/4 c. butter
1/4 c. sugar

Roll graham crackers into fine crumbs. Mix with sugar and butter and press into pie plate. Bake at 375 for about 8 minutes.

Strawberry season should be like childhood, sweet and full of simple, delicious memories. Enjoy it while it lasts, and take every opportunity to revisit it whenever you can.

© 2008 Jenifer Dolde