Hi, my name is Jim, and I'm a strawberry-holic.
This time of the year, my “addiction” becomes readily apparent. Since last week, I've had strawberries for breakfast on some days, for lunch a couple of those days, and during dinner (or for an evening snack) every single day since, I believe, last Friday or Saturday. Some of the strawberries I've eaten came from the Marquette Food Co-op, while the best of them came after my dad (the greatest dad in the history of dads, by the way) spent Saturday morning living through a thunderstorm while picking a dozen or so quarts in Gladstone.
And seeing as how my dad picked all those strawberries by himself, maybe I'm not the ONLY strawberry-holic in the family!
I can't explain my addiction to strawberries, other than to say I've had it for as long as I can remember. Unlike my dad, who loves picking any kind of berries, I've only been out gathering strawberries once, and that's when I was a young kid and my parents took me out to pick. I don't believe I did a very good job; in fact, if I remember correctly, I ate more than I actually put in the containers.
Of course, the best part of that story is the fact that after I spent the entire morning eating strawberries instead of picking them, we went out to lunch where the only thing I ordered, if I remember correctly, was a strawberry shake.
What can I say? Even as a kid, I guess I was kind of, uhm, special.
I think the reason I go so gaga for strawberries this time of the year is that they're fresh. They taste like strawberries. You know they've just been ripped from the ground, and they taste that way, unlike some of the packaged strawberries you can get during the winter. I mean, sure, I'll eat those, because they're the only strawberries available, but I know that they're not as good as the strawberries you get in June (or, this year, July). I look forward to them every year, and often find myself bingeing on them, as I'm doing this year. After all, strawberries have one of the shortest shelf lives of any fruit or vegetable, so it's either use 'em or lose 'em, right?
And I know which side of the eating equation I'd rather be on.
So if you happen to see me in the next week or so and my lips are redder than usual or I have seeds stuck in my teeth, just remember I'm feeding my addiction to strawberries. We all have our demons.
And I'm guessing that's mine.
8-)
Tomorrow, another story about my dad, and about how he apparently has built himself quite the following among a small group of people, even if he didn't know he did it.
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