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Ours won't be in season until mid June (Vancouver, BC) but I can almost smell them - amazing the difference between local, fresh picked and "ripened in a truck" versions.

That recipe sounds good. I tried to make my MIL's version one time with strawberry jello. Never again. Low class and nasty. The same for those jars of strawberry glaze in the produce section. Awful. Horrible. The only reason I tried them was because I lived somewhere for awhile that didn't sell Danish Dessert.

Whenever possible, I make my mother's version that uses Danish Dessert. It comes in a little box in the grocery near the jello but is nothing like jello. It's slightly tangy and has the consistency described in your article.

People love it. Serve with whipped cream.

Wait! I was at the Union Square Greenmarket on hunting for strawberries last weekend and they were nowhere to be found. I'm making a strawberries and cream birthday cake this weekend and really want to use local stuff. I guess I'll be on the hunt again tomorrow morning. Bright and early this time. Wish me luck!

They're around in Cali! I need to buy some and make jam again. Homemade strawberry jam is one of life's simple pleasures and making it's quite fun, too, as long as you don't do anything stupid (like I did the first time) and burn yourself. I'll probably make 2 batches this year. One to give away and one to keep!

they're showing up here in san jose at the farmers markets. $5 for three baskets full, $8 if they're organic. pretty sure they're local.

We call this Grandma Dot's Blueberry Pie but it was originally for strawberries. It also works very well with peaches or peaches mixed with raspberries or blueberries. Sort of the same idea as the recipe above but without using gelatin. The hardest part of the recipe is waiting until it chills and sets!

Grandma Dot's Blueberry Pie

Ingredients
4 cups blueberries ( OR
strawberries, raspberries,
peaches)
1 cup granulated sugar
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 cup cornstarch diluted in 3/4
cup hot water
1 Tbs. lemon juice

Method

Combine sugar, salt, and 1/2 cup crushed blueberries,
diluted corn starch, and hot water. Cook over low flame
until mixture is thick and clear. Remove from heat, and
add lemon juice and mix well. Cool mixture. Pour over
remaining berries*. Put glazed berries into a baked pie
shell. Let stand until cold. Chill and serve with whipped
cream.

*A recent innovation has been to mix the berries in the glaze in the glaze bowl and then pour it all into the pie shell. The berries and glaze get mixed up better that way.

I made a very fruitful trip to the farmers market during my lunch hour. The smell of strawberries is going to drive me straight out of this office and home to my kitchen.

Thanks for that Grandma Dot recipe--I'm going to try it! The other recipe looks good but I wish it was vegetarian.

I see the pickers at work when I drive into town. The later ones have the most flavor, though the berries are smaller and take longer to pick. the season usually runs April to earliest June. I prefer shortcake to pie

25th annual Strawberry Festival today in Oxnard--the Strawberry Capital! I think the Ventura County Star said there would be about 8,000 pounds of strawberries to be consumed at the 2-day festival. One year, when I was living in NYC, my dad bought a flat at the peak and Mom and he made jam--it was so bright it looked fake when they gave me one to take back from CA, but it was the best jam Mom ever made. It goes to show that the "raw materials" are of critical importance in cooking for the quality to be good. Then you gotta make sure you don't screw it up, like burning it or something.

We have local (and organic!) strawberries in Nashville, TN now, they started popping up about three weeks ago. And we also got some in our first CSA share!

I made the Strawberry Pie yesterday, and it turned out just like in the picture. It was very good, although not in the "stellar" category; I am trying to find a way to improve it.

The strawberries are key -- mine were local, but not as good as some others I have had. I am thinking that maybe concentrating the strawberry juices and then adding prosecco will give it the umph I am seeking (and maybe a touch more gelatin to handle the prosecco).

I used to make a fabulous berry tart (lost the recipe), but as I recall, it was a nut/shortbread crust, filled with berries -- raspberries, blackberries, maybe currants, and covered with reduced red currant jelly mixed with liqueur (grand marnier I think). Very, very simple, but quite wonderful.

Y'all are so cute. Here in Austin, strawberries have come and gone a month ago. I've got pounds of them in the freezer...We're moving on to peach season!

Just made this recipe for individual tarts - they were DELICIOUS! I bought some large shortbread premade tart bases and filled them with the filling - they were the perfect bring along dessert for a summer day. And so cute! I put one upside down strawberry in each little tart shell... I should have taken a picture!