Laowai

We picked strawberries this week. We took a friend of Claire’s and it was a drippy hot day.

It seems less common for people around my town to go picking strawberries or blueberries or anything like that. So it’s happened a few times now that I’ve taken a little friend of Bea or Claire and it was their first experience picking. The moms are always so thankful for taking their kids out for such special occasion. I have to smile – because, yes, it is special, but it’s also just a part of a proper summer.

Here are another couple examples that show what kind of neighborhood I live in. I have the Next Door app – where people from your neighborhood post about needing a good plumber or that their teenager is available to babysit or that they are selling some furniture. The other day a woman posted about her son. She said this may seem weird but my son really likes fishing – he goes almost everyday. Then she went on to ask if anyone had any ideas about renting a boat. To me a kid liking fishing is not weird – it’s good and normal. Our neighborhood has a summer block party and it’s fun and some ladies put a lot of time into making it great. But… the potluck table does not impress me. I have memories of summer get-togethers with tables filled with the most delicious homey summer food. Potato salad and jello salad and baked beans, macaroni salad, bean salad and fruit desserts and deviled eggs and on and on. In contrast, the food at our neighborhood get-together had many sad pre-purchased salads and packages of Oreos with only a few home-made things scattered in.* 

So in some ways I feel judgmental and I know that I am lucky to be able to spend time on these things, but I also think that some of this stuff is important. I grew up picking food out of gardens and fishing with my dad and filling my paper plate with fantastic food and I just feel like that was the right way.

Anyway sorry for the ranting. I have been enjoying making all sorts of strawberry goodies. Every time I turn around I’m at my sink hulling strawberries. I made jam and strawberry shortcake and I’ll make some strawberry bread later today. I tried a new recipe for strawberry milk. It’s made with lots of buttermilk and you let it sit overnight so the yogurt taste disappears. It was a hit and I will definitely have to remember it for a June treat next year too. 

Here’s the strawberry milk – I actually messed up the recipe and put 3 cups buttermilk and 1 cup milk when it was supposed to be 1 cup buttermilk and 3 cups milk. So ours came out more like a thick shake. It was delicious – not too sweet and super fruity.

And here is a pretty onion. 

* my potluck contribution was my sister-in-law Kim’s broccoli salad.

The end.