In the summer, if Bethie and I were very lucky, Gram would have some strawberries out for us when we'd go over to her house for Sunday dinner. We'd more or less gorge ourselves on them. Sometimes, she even had the powdered sugar out so we could dip the strawberries in it. She even took us strawberries picking once. I think this is why I always associate strawberries with Gram.
The Farmer's Market was just covered with strawberries today. At first I wasn't going to get any. The other day, I bought two pounds of strawberries from Kroger for $3, and I still had over half of those left, and at the market the going price seemed to be $6 for a quart. And then I smelled them. Oh, man. There's such a huge difference in quality between berries at Kroger from California, and berries at the market that were picked ripe the day before, or even, that morning. I can't believe I almost didn't buy them. I've already eaten half.
Fun "fact" from wikipedia:
There is a theory that the name derives from the Anglo-Saxon verb for "strew" (meaning to spread around) which was streabergen (Strea means "strew" and Bergen means "berry" or "fruit") and thence to streberie, straiberie, strauberie, straubery, strauberry, and finally, "strawberry", the word which we use today. The name might have come from the fact that the fruit and various runners appear "strewn" along the ground.
Another theory suggests strawberries received their name from the long-time practice of packing the delicate fruit in straw.
No comments:
Post a Comment