Strawberry Season

So you’ve gotten your hands on some strawberries from the farm nearby. Give them a rinse in your kitchen sink, daydreaming about all the adventures you’ll have together. Pluck one from beneath the running water, too soon; bite into it and watch the red-orange juice dribble down your palm. They won’t last long. 

Strawberry season feels like it lasts forever. Even on Michigan winter days where the cold gnaws through layers of wool and the sun can’t reach your skin, the supermarket down the road keeps their ruby red gems on display in those big shiny tubs under yellow lettering, waiting for you in their fluorescent commercial haze. Bite into those shiny supermarket strawberries sometime and note the blandness, the incongruent crunch. Strawberry season feels like it lasts forever, but it really lasts about two months, from June to August, when a walk to the market or (if you’re lucky) to the brambly patch down the road will get you your very own freshly picked harvest.

And so, you’ve gotten your hands on some strawberries, some real, real strawberries. They’re deeply red and a little squishy and brushed with a few flecks of dirt. You’ve rinsed them off and towel-dried them gently and maybe popped a few in your mouth. How did they taste? Were they sweeter than you remembered? Is your skin dotted with sticky sanguine patches? Did you lick the remnants off your fingertips? Have you sliced your tongue dislodging the squishy fibrous bits of flesh left lodged in between your teeth? Place the remainders in a bowl, carefully lined with a paper towel to keep them fresh. Migrate the bowl from your sink to your fridge. Close the door. 

If I know you like I think I do, if you’re anything like me, you’ll wander lazily over there a couple times for the next few days and grab yourself a berry or two to eat hunched over your sink, some ghostlike image at the crossroads of gluttony and delirium. They’ll be as juicy and impossible as ever. The fridge trips will slow. Eventually, you’ll forget they were ever there. Before you know it, they’ll go bad, and strawberry season will be over with.