You can tell the seasons by the local produce

It’s strawberry season in the great Pacific Northwest.  I’m not talking about those large tasteless California strawberries which have been in local supermarkets for weeks, I’m talking about the small, red sweet berries that only grow in the Northwest.

Strawberry season to me signals the real beginning of summer like nothing else.  When I was a kid, strawberry picking was what you did immediately upon the close of school.  So when the strawberries came ripe it was the beginning of summer.

You can read the whole flow of summer by what fruits and vegetables are on the market.

Right now it’s strawberries, but cherries will be out for a week or two and the wild mountain huckleberries are also  nearly ripe and ready for picking.

Soon the raspberries will be turning red followed in a week or two by the blackberries; the Rocky Mountain Blackberries, those small berries which grow on the vines lying close to the ground.  Of course the large Himalayans will be ready shortly as well, but they are too seedy and too difficult to prepare..

Most of the beans and peas and common variety backyard vegetable garden crops will be ready about mid-August and so will some of the local apples.  The Yellow Transparent will be ready before then, but followed soon by the Jonathon’s and the Winesaps; all of those other apples which grow on the wet side of the mountains.

By September, the Eastern Washington apples will be offered in our local markets and so will the large ears of corn, super sweet and all grown right here in Thurston County.

Local cucumbers for making pickles, cabbage for making sauerkraut and squashes and gourds of all kinds come ready by September.

By the time the local corn hits the market though, summer will be over.  The fruits and vegetables which marked the flow of the summer days will have come and gone.  Their beginnings marked with anticipation, their endings by sorrow that the season is over.

They don’t stay around very long.  Strawberry season will be over in two to three weeks.  If you haven’t got your local berries by then, it’s too late.  The same is true of the raspberries, two to three weeks and that’s it.  Then they’re gone.

That’s just like all good things.  They don’t stick around very long.  But that’s the beauty of local fruits and vegetables.  We know that they’ll be back again next season, and it’s that anticipation which makes them worthwhile.