Strawberry Season Brings Back Sweet Memories

            Last Friday night I found myself helping the neighbor kids pick quarts of strawberries from their strawberry patch.  This brought back memories from my childhood picking strawberries from their grandfather’s large strawberry patch for $.25 per quart.  Looking back, I guess I can say this was my very first job.  I was pretty young when the family took a hiatus from berry growing, so the job was short lived and I probably wasn’t all that great of a picker, but it must have planted some roots that helped lead me down this path to becoming a produce farmer. 

My father remembers picking strawberries for the same family in his childhood for just a nickel a quart.  Many of his cohorts have related similar stories of working for the various truck farmers along the River Road in their youth.  This type of hard, hot, back breaking farm work was the norm back then.  It brightens my day to see that there are still some kids out there who are willing to do these jobs.  I wish more children had the opportunity and the drive to do this “character building” work.

One of my favorite things about strawberry season is that once a year we have “Strawberry Shortcake Night” at my Grandma Jean’s house.  Instead of eating a real supper, we just eat strawberry shortcake.  That way there are no worries that we will be too full for dessert!  Be assured that I will show up at my grandma’s with a bucket of strawberries very soon.

            Hopefully, some of my readers were lucky enough to know a famous local farm woman and pie maker, Ruth McLaughlin.  Her berry pies were famous at church and Farm Bureau events throughout the county.  She often shared her recipes, so I feel she would approve if I publish her recipe once again.

Ruth’s Strawberry Pie 

1 quart berries for 8 in. pie (you’ll want more for a larger pie and Ruth said “Use only good berries!”) cleaned and sliced.  Bake pie crust and sprinkle with powdered sugar.

Cook:

1 c. sugar

1 c. water

3 Tbsp. corn starch

4 Tbsp. strawberry Jello

Boil one min. then let cool, but not too cool.  Lay berries in crust and pour over top. Top pie with whipped cream.  Ruth used this method for all her berry pies.