Strawberries

February 27th is National Strawberry Day

These juicy, sweet berries can brighten up any dish and are delicious all on their own.

There are a few different stories behind the origin of the name. The more widely accepted version is that the berries would drop off the leaves and become “strewn” about the plant. Over time “strewn-berries” became “strawberries”. There was a time (and some gardeners still do this today) when strawberry beds were mulched with straw, insulating the plants over the winter, keeping weeds at bay during the growing season, and making them easier to harvest. Another sweet story tells of English children stringing the berries on grass straws and selling the “straw berries” in their neighborhoods.

My very favorite is a really good strawberry shortcake. Yummy! Another wonderful way was introduced to me during a class I was teaching in my home. It was very near my dear friend Mary's birthday at the time so she brought a birthday treat along with her. I think everyone else had eaten it before but I never had. It was simply beautiful strawberries dipped in sour cream, then into brown sugar and eaten. Oh my goodness! Nectar of the gods. Why had I never had this before! Most recently I went to a buffet while visiting out of state and they had fruit bowls that were sprinkled on top with powdered sugar. Once again I had never had it before. Delicious. I thought there whipped cream was biting the dust. The strawberries were my favorite in the dish but that powdered sugar was yummy on each of the fruits. Once home I bought some fruit (mainly strawberries) and dug out my rarely used powdered sugar and added it to my "cooking" repitroire. 

Quite some time ago the Paper Pumpkin Kit that we received at the end of the year was a calendar to make. We'll, I didn't need a calendar, I needed cards. So what I did was decorate the top of each calendar page and put it on a card. I use them as birthday cards. This one is for May so when I have a birthday coming up in May I will use a little circle stamp which came with the kit and encircle the date of their birthday. Some gave me their calendar pages cause they didn't want them so I have quite a few to decorate. I wish I could say that I got them all decorated but sadly I cannot. I pulled them out though when I was hunting this card and I've made it a goal to finish them all.