A Place to Call Home and Wild Strawberries

I hope everyone is enjoying their holiday weekend. All I can say is - it's hot. With temperatures in the 90's, it's hard to find the motivation to do much gardening. As a result, like so many other chores on my to-do list, the weeds will have to wait yet another day.

The other night, Marc and I watched the movie, "Julie and Julia." Part bio pic of the late Julia Child's adventures in Paris during her formative years as a chef, it reminded me of how much I want our lives to be centered around good food (and how I would love to visit France one of these days).

One day, I hope to live in a town in which I can purchase the bulk of my family's food from local vendors as passionate about what they sold as we were about eating it. I would buy only what we planned to eat for the next day or two, not what will keep in its shrink wrap for weeks on end. In the early morning, I would head out to the local baker for some crusty artisan bread. The produce market would be bustling - stalls overflowing with what was seasonal and fresh. The local fishmonger would go on and on about the morning's catch. And the town's butcher would describe not only the different cuts of meat he sold, but also how the animals were raised and slaughtered.

If all of these wonderful things describe where YOU live, please let me know! Who knows, maybe one of these days, we'll be neighbors. (I'm a good one, I promise.) Admittedly, Marc and I haven't fully committed to where we're living now, and we're excited to do a bit of traveling during the next few years in order to find a place that means to us what Paris meant to Julia. Until such time this dream becomes a reality, we'll have to settle for what's growing in our garden and baking in our home oven.


So what does all of this have to do with wild strawberries? Let's just say you'll never find one of these at your local supermarket. But if you're lucky, you may come across it at an open air market in Europe. Sometimes, I wish I could properly convey to my non-gardening friends some of the truly wonderful things they are missing out on. Until earlier this week, I had never eaten a wild strawberry before. And if I hadn't decided to grow some this year, I may have lived the rest of my life without having experienced this pleasure.

I'm growing two varieties of wild strawberries (Red Wonder and Yellow Wonder). The seeds were started in the beginning of February. These perennial plants are just now starting to bloom aggressively. During the past few days, we've been able to sample a couple of each variety. Both are extremely delicious but the yellow ones in particular are a feast for the taste buds. Aside from the intense strawberry flavor you ordinarily get from the wild sort, I would describe Yellow Wonder as having an interesting floral taste as well, somewhat reminiscent of roses.

I've said this before but part of the joy in vegetable gardening for me is being able to grow varieties that are almost impossible to source commercially. Maybe if more of us did, we as a country would expect more from our food economy.

On a final note, I just realized that today is my one year blogging anniversary. Oh, what difference a year makes. Thank you all for participating in this growing journey with me. Your wisdom and guidance are much appreciated.