STRAWBERRIES, STRAWBERRIES,
STRAWBERRIES
Who doesn't love Strawberries? We love them so much
we are going to share Strawberry recipes with you every Saturday for the next few
weeks.
We know ours are fairly early and some of you will be getting yours' in
the weeks to come.
When I worked in an office as a teenager, one of the older
typists told me a real treat of the beginning of summer was if the peas, new
potatoes, and strawberries would all be ripe by 4th of July! She grew up in
Maine.
Here in our part of Arkansas they are often ready by Mother's Day!
' Back in the day'
this county (Searcy) was the Strawberry capital of the world.
The Flintrock
Strawberry Growers Association of Searcy County reported sales of 19,500 crates
in 1948.
Back then a crate held 24 quarts! The county paper reported 1956 as the
peak year with 1,800 acres in production. In those days the school year was
coordinated to allow children out of school (sometime in May) in order to pick.
A large truck would be sent to town to pick up the children and take them to the
fields, which were usually on the slope of a hill. (Remember this is the
Ozarks!) They would climb the hill bent over picking their way up. One person I
know said, in the late 1960's he was paid .06 cents a quart to pick!
This past week at
the farmer's market in Little Rock a quart cost $7.00!
I recommend checking out
Wikipedia, which had so many interesting facts about the Strawberry, going all
the way back to King Charles V of France in the 1300's who had 1200 plants in
his garden.
See you tomorrow with our first scrumptious strawberry recipe!
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