Welcoming Strawberry Season

Strawberries are making their season debut in California, and they will start ripening over the next several weeks in much of the country, including my region: the mid-Atlantic. I like making strawberry-rhubarb crumble, especially with local or regionally grown strawberries.

This info comes from the website Recipzaar:

. . . the strawberry is a member of the rose family and has grown wild for centuries.

The most common American variety is the result of crossbreeding the wild Virginia strawberry and a Chilean variety. This has produced a hardy berry that is able to withstand both shipping and storage.

More flavorful, is the European Alpine strawberry -- tiny exquisitely sweet wild strawberries of France known as fraises des bois. They are considered to be the "queen of strawberries."

I have tasted fraise des bois, and they are magnificent.