When the weather is cold and dreary like this I always think about Glo Worm toys. I didn’t have the plush version with the battery operated light-up face. I just had one of the plastic ones that you held under a table lamp to charge. Then when I turned out my bedroom light the Glo Worm would light up, sort of creepily, and I’d play with it until it died out and repeat the process again. I’m absolutely like those little toys and right now I desperately need a sunny day to recharge my gloomy mood. We’re building arks in New England and suffering from sever cabin fever but the rain just wont quit and it doesn’t appear to be letting up anytime soon. Thankfully I have the memories of one of the last truly lovely sunny days we had to keep me going, and even better than sunshine that day also involved picking a massive amount of fresh strawberries at Shelburne Farm.
The first thing you need to know is that warm berries freshly picked off the plant taste like a Country Time Lemonade commercial come to life. This is the only time of year that you can get a strawberry that tastes so unbelievably heavenly. It makes the fruit we buy the rest of the time taste like watered down bits of nothingness. I wish I was exaggerating the extravagance of their flavor but I’m truly not.
As I had big plans for my personal harvest CK and I opted to pick a very large box of berries. It took us almost half an hour to fill the monstrosity but we enjoyed ourselves. When you live in the city it’s easy to forget what being outside just to be outside truly feels like. We may walk to the T or pop over to Harvard Square but it’s almost always with an indoor destination (restaurant, move theater, bar) in mind. Standing in that field of ruby red berries really made me feel alive.
Of course this sunny fruit excursion didn’t come cheaply. At $3 a pound our very heavy box cost over $44 but I think I’d pay double that just for the privilege of having my apartment smell like a strawberry field for the leisurely two days that it took me to cook, prep, and freeze the various treats that I made.
