Living in America, I honestly never noticed the changing of the seasons when it came to food. Especially living in California, so much could be grown practically year-round, that not being able to find something in the grocery store was totally unknown to me. But after living in Germany for 18 months, I noticed that certain fruits and vegetables were only available for a few months a year. After that, they were simply gone from the shelves. And after 10 years here, I have totally bought into that way of life, even though there are more products available now off-season than there were before.
The philosophy is a simple one; when something is in season, you eat as much of it as you can, til you pretty much get sick of it, and then you don't miss it so bad for the rest of the year. By the time it's in season again, it's been so long since you had any, you immediately start gobbling them up for dear life again. And right now, it's strawberry season! Sophie, Alexandra and I went berry picking a few weeks ago on a little farm in the next town over. They each had their own little bucket, and I had a large Rubbermaid container, that I wanted to fill with enough berries to make a pie and then some jam.
The berries were gorgeous! Big, red and juicy, and so delicious looking I can't believe the girls resisted eating a single one until we had weighed and paid for them! Such good girls, although I don't think the farmers would have minded at all. In fact, there was a cute little old man in the row next to us, and he was eating one for every 2 he put in his basket! Said he had to make sure they tasted good enough. 🙂
Sophie is an excellent strawberry picker and between the two of us we managed to fill all our containers in about 45 minutes. Alexandra wanted to help, but the berries were so ripe, she just ended up squishing them to a pulp in her hand. I only let her try it a couple of times, and after that she just pointed to the ones she wanted me to pick for her.
At the weigh-in desk, they told Sophie she could go take a spin on the "Glücksrad", or good luck wheel. If the pointer landed on a picture of a strawberry, she could pick a prize. Imagine her delight, when she spun the wheel and it stopped right on the strawberry! They had a bag full of different prizes, and she ended up choosing a set of colored pencils, just the right size for transporting to church. To top it off, there were baby goats to feed grass to as we walked up to our car. We were home before the other kids were back from afternoon school, and they were very pleased to see the delicious bounty we had brought back.
Unfortunately, the fresh strawberries were too much for us to resist. No pies were baked, no jam was cooked, we simply devoured them, all 9 pounds of crimson goodness, in two days flat! So we went back the next week and picked another 9 pounds, plus 2 pounds of cherries, and with THOSE we made jam. :)