On Saturday we picked strawberry at Greig Farm in Red Hook where we harvested asparagus in May. We picked 8 pound of the fruit to make strawberry jam. Picking of the fruits was fun, but my whole legs and part of my back ache even this Monday morning! from continuous squatting and picking the right ripe fruit for 40 minutes. Big appreciation to people who does this for us as a job.
Our last week dinner guest Chris M knows Norman Greig, the owner of the farm. Norman told Chris an interesting farm history – how local farms could survive in the past. Before the introduction and expansion of large supermarkets in the country local farms were the prime source of produce and fruit for local people. Families sent their kids to the farms to harvest and bring produce and vegetables back to home. Today it is ironic that people living in the country drive to large supermarkets and shop produce and fruits which are not local and seasonal, but also came from far away, sometimes foreign countries.
To survive in this new environment Farmers like Greig has been running a program “Pick Your Own”. This encourages both city people and local people to come to his farm and harvest produce and fruits. Since we do the job, the price of the harvested items is half of the greenmarket price. I am very grateful that I can take an advantage of this wonderful program. At Greig Farm next week peas and snap peas are available. Summer raspberries will be ready in July. My favorite blueberries and blackberries are coming in August. So, let’s do the harvest at Greig Farm or other farm which offers the same program. It is nothing better for our health than eating ripe and ready-to-eat produce and fruits out of soil.
I kept the harvested strawberries in a refrigerator overnight and through next morning. By lunch time on Sunday they were releasing delicious, strong aroma and screaming at to me to eat them. Then, an image of California raised packaged, non-perishable strawberries, which are stacked up at supermarket shelf, came to my mind. It is wired, but this wired strawberries (far from natural food product) has become normal food item in today’s food scene.
Here I made the strawberry jam after my dinner on Sunday. This morning my rye toast got a thick smudge of this strawberry jam. Yummy, yummy and yummy.
