Strawberries | In Season

June is the heart of strawberry season, so celebrate it now before the coming waves of blueberries, peaches, and apples turn our heads.

By Amy Traverso

Jun 07 2016

Strawberry Shortcake

Photo Credit : Aimee Tucker

The sweet season is upon us.

In small towns across New England, village greens and country churches host berry festivals and strawberry socials to mark the start of the summer season. It’s the first wave of summer fruit and after so many months of dried cranberries and shipped-from-afar citrus, we embrace its arrival.

We are not the first Americans to savor the season. Native people enjoyed a diet rich in wild strawberries, and their technique of burning woodland parcels for cornfields also created a habitat where the fruit could flourish.

Sure, you can get strawberries year-round, but they rarely have the flavor of local berries, whose peak ripeness arrives in early June and can now run as late as September, as farmers experiment with newer “day-neutral” varieties. Still, June remains the heart of strawberry season, so celebrate it now, before the coming waves of blueberries, peaches, and apples turn our heads.

	Strawberry Shortcake When fresh berries abound, who can resist the charm of a classic homemade strawberry shortcake? Let the sliced, sugared berries sit for at least an hour to get good and juicy.
	Fresh Tomato andStrawberry Salsa We’ve tried mango and peach salsa, so we thought, why not strawberry? With their tart sweetness, strawberries complement tomatoes in a surprising way in this fresh tomato & strawberry salsa. A little heat from the jalapenos pulls the mixture together.
	Strawberry-Rhubarb Crisp In this strawberry rhubarb crisp recipe, the familiar combination of rhubarb and fresh strawberries is baked under a light crumbly crust. Serve warm with slightly softened vanilla ice cream spooned over the top.
	Classic Strawberry Ice Cream Just strawberries, milk, cream, and eggs—a simple formula that lets the fresh berry flavor shine through in this classic recipe for strawberry ice cream.
	Fresh Strawberry Milkshake (Frappe) With just three ingredients, this easy-to-make dessert is thick, rich, and frosty.
	Pavlova with Strawberries and Whipped Cream Australians and New Zealanders have an ongoing debate about who first created this gorgeous meringue dessert crowned with whipped cream and fresh fruit. You can substitute other berries, kiwi, or mango, but we love it best with strawberries.

Amy Traverso

Food Editor Amy Traverso oversees the Yankee Magazine Food department and contributes to NewEngland.com. Amy's book, The Apple Lover's Cookbook (W.W. Norton), won an International Association of Culinary Professionals (IACP) cookbook award for the category American.

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