U Pick! Strawberry Time

Fresh seasonal fruits and vegetables are the highlight of any table, and the strawberry is the star of May's table in our little corner of the world. After a hectic week of work and school and tennis and soccer, the whole family was thrilled when we set out Saturday afternoon for some quality time together at Gross Farms' strawberry patch. 

Gross Farms always has a bountiful selection of quality fresh produce, but today our focus was on one thing only, the strawberry patch. The counter in the barn was loaded with baskets of big, perfectly ripened berries, but experience tells us that berries you've picked yourself taste twice as good, so we each grabbed an empty basket and headed out to the designated U Pick section of the patch.  

It was a bit cool for this time of year, but the sun was smiling brightly, and the huge red berries were smiling right back. In less than a quarter hour, we had filled our baskets to overflowing with hand-picked crimson perfection, and headed back to the barn to settle up.

Here's Hunter with his strawberry smile on, holding half our haul, with visions of strawberry confections dancing in his head...

It took an hour or so to wash and stem the berries, then out came the flour and shortening for pie-crust making. A couple of cups of flour, a generous pinch of salt, 2/3 of a cup of shortening (didn't have any lard on hand), and 6-7 tablespoons of ice water later, two homemade pie crusts were on their way into the oven. 

While the crusts were baking, we cooked up a couple of heaping cups of crushed berries, two level cups of sugar, a cup or so of water and four or five tablespoons of cornstarch until the mixture thickened into a luscious strawberry filling. When the crusts had cooled, we piled them with four or five cups of fresh berry slices and topped them with the syrupy strawberry filling. 

They chilled for an hour or so, then met up with some real dairy whipped cream in one of Neolia Cole's pottery bowls where they were the undisputed star of last night's dessert table.

Rustic strawberry pie, how fleeting is thy fame! Who knew last night that your scrumptious simplicity would be trumped by something simpler still...

Two cups of semi-sweet mini chocolate chips and a tablespoon of shortening, melted and married with two dozen of the choicest berries, creates a veritable taste bud temblor tonight; half a dozen on a favorite Whynot Pottery plate, and the pie is yesterday's news...