The time has finally come for us to move forward with plans! It’s been a minute since I’ve written anything, but I have many posts in mind that I’m excited to share, and this one is a long time coming.

Back in Korea, there is a season solely dedicated to strawberries. Other countries have similar produce seasons such as “Spargelzeit” or “asparagus time” in Germany. It’s a season that’s highly anticipated and during which many restaurant dishes and markets highlight whatever the seasonal ingredient is. Does the US have this? Have I just been missing out? If so, please clue me in! I know, I digress. Squirrel!

So, strawberry season in Korea is a big deal. They’re everywhere, and the presentation is half of the appeal. The packages we would purchase contained 12 perfect, enormous strawberries, situated in parallel rows in protective styrofoam containers. Unfortunately, the presentation often reflected the price we could expect to pay, so strawberries in Korea were a treat…as evidenced in these pictures from when the kids were much younger, sigh.

Fast forward to being back stateside…two years ago the kids and I picked a couple of buckets of strawberries at a local U-pick farm and turned them into jam. Those 15 or so jars lasted us two years since, apparently, we don’t eat a lot of jam, or the kids didn’t realize just how darn good that stuff was. So, last fall when I saw that the same strawberry farm was looking for volunteers to plant the next year’s crop, in exchange for strawberries this spring, I jumped at the chance. For four hours one day I kneeled, bent over, crawled, was rained on, dug in and got dirty, all in anticipation of “free” strawberries this spring. I might have not been able to walk upright for the next couple of days, but by doggone it, I was going to get those strawberries!

This weekend that dream was realized. Although the current global situation is prohibiting the U-pick operations, drive through strawberry-ing (yes, that’s a word) happened. From those three, five pound buckets and a whole mess of lemons we managed to make five pints of strawberry-lemonade concentrate, 19 half pints of strawberry jam and some absolutely delicious (if I do say so myself) gluten- and dairy-free strawberry shortcake.

Hopefully these jars will last us until we can find a new strawberry patch…or at least until we can plant our own.