Through the dreary days of June, here on the north coast of Washington state, the strawberries still grew. I find that to be a fairly amazing feat. Because, although the rest of the country has had the exact opposite weather, June for us was nothing but cold, cloudy and rainy. I love this place. It’s one of the most beautiful places on earth. And because of that, I have (I think) a pretty high tolerance for the weather. However, on July 3rd, as I sat here at my computer looking out on one of the most stormy and cold days we have had, I wanted to cry. Because really, the weather we were experiencing was pretty much the same weather we had in January — a little warmer, but not much. I wished that there were some way to send some of this chilly, damp weather to those who were suffering in the heat everywhere but here, it seemed.
It is not a joke when people say that summer starts on July 5th. It’s true, and we crawl out of our homes blinded by the light of the sun and thrilled beyond joy that summer has finally blessed us with her arrival. OK, perhaps it’s not so dramatic — but it really feels that way at times.
So, somehow in the cold days of June, strawberries grew and grew. Yesterday, we picked and picked, and ate and ate. Thrilled to finally have a taste of summer! I even made cashew cream, one of our favorite ways to eat them.
It was glorious!
Now our freezer is on its way to being filled up with the bounty that awaits us this summer!
Yes, summer!!!
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Elaine – What a beautiful sight, so purely red and so decadently sweet! So much more beautiful than those anemic-looking things that pass for berries in the supermarkets, or the ones that are so jumbo-sized that you wonder what in the world was pumped into them to make them so abnormally large (and most likely unhealthy to eat). And rarely do they have any taste. On the off chance that you don’t finish them all this summer (they wouldn’t last that long in our house, even though it’s only my husband and myself), won’t it be a joy to pull some summer berries from the freezer in the middle of one of our gloomy fall or winter days and remember the day you picked them and how the sun was shining and warm? And once again, for a little while, it’s summer! Enjoy our beautiful weather – and I agree, there’s no perfect place to live than our little northwest corner of the world!