We decided to go to Lopez Island in the San Juan Islands for a family vacation.  I spent a few summers on Orcas Island at Camp Orcila and have super fond memories.  The San Juan’s are lush, pristine, and calming.  I can see why people vacation and sail here all of the time.

One day we decided to go strawberry picking, we had seen signs for a farm near the house we rented.  We pull up to the farm and there’s an umbrella in the center with the farmer and family and/or friends sitting there.  They tell us to take a bucket and go start picking, 3 dollars a pound, go have fun.

Row and rows of small green leafy bushes with the cutest little strawberries were everywhere.  Funny enough you’d think this 38 year old chef would have been strawberry picking before, but nope, never.  Growing up in Seattle I picked my share of blackberries but never a strawberry. 

I was there with my mother, sister, brother in law and the cutest little strawberry picker of them all, Tessa Simone my beautiful niece. 

Mostly we see strawberries from California (Driscolls) in the grocery stores, and my understanding is that this varietals when left on the vine to fruition is one of the most incredible strawberry one can ever have.  The problem is that it is never left on the vine and this varietal is used because it gets so big and looks so good before it is fully ripe and thus is very good for shipping.  And then we get a strawberry that is flavorless in February and everyone uses them for Valentines.

On my knees picking the strawberry I was so enthralled how beautiful they were, the best ones when you gave them a little twist the stem would stay with the plant and in my hand was this beautiful little soft red gift of nature.  Popping one in my mouth was a wonderful experience.  A small snap or even crunch followed by an explosion of juice fills my mouth.  Interestingly it had a slight tart taste at first followed by a big sweet juicy rich strawberry flavor, maybe even a small hint of salt and herb that gave it a such a startling flavor that I had to have another one right away.  And of course another. 

Sitting in this field, eating some of the best strawberries I have ever had and watching Tessa eat strawberries, to date, is one of my favorite food/family memories ever. So we picked 5# of strawberries and headed off to the organic farm next door to get dinner.

What did we do with the Strawberries?  We Patron Strawberry Gimlets, yum!!!!  Strawberry shortcake, of course.  And then I made some strawberry jam, lay up. 

Every day I want to eat just picked strawberries.  Everyone should.

This entry was posted on Monday, July 14th, 2008 at 12:00 pm and is filed under Fruits and Vegetables, iTravel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.