Guest Post: Hope for Spring – Carrots 'N' Cake

Friday, April 17, 2009 at 11:18 AM

Guest Post: Hope for Spring

I live in the San Francisco Bay Area and I admit it: I’m as guilty as my California brethren of complaining about the weather, even though it’s almost always nicer here than anywhere else in the country. When I came home recently from a month-long trip to Hawaii, I grumbled my way across the tarmac – who needs jetways with our weather? – about returning to sub-70 degree weather. 

Then I saw footage of Fargo, North Dakota and spring in California suddenly seemed like a gift, perhaps even a blessing. Northern California might not be located at a latitude that allows year-round boogie boarding, but by April, we’re turning off the central heat, the trees and flowers are blooming, and our CSA is delivering hope for spring in the form of beautiful, fresh, young, delicious produce.

That said, I thought it would be fitting to share a little of California’s spring bounty with the rest of the country, who from my vantage point, seem to be mired in blizzards, slush and floods. Then comes tornado season!
California is the nation’s top strawberry producer, growing 83 percent of the country’s crop. In Southern California, I’ve had them as early as February. Up North, we have to wait a little longer, but who’s complaining? The fruit is beautiful and the season long.

I grew up in the Midwest (Michigan) and California strawberries are considerably different from what I was raised with. When I was a kid, my mom told me to look for smaller strawberries, which in her opinion were sweeter than the big ones. “The big ones don’t have any taste,” she’d say.

Quite the opposite is true here in the Golden State. Bigger is definitely better. Most of the local grocery stores even sell the berries attached to their stems for dipping in chocolate. They’re more expensive than the ones in the little green boxes, but, oh, the allure of chocolate-dipped strawberries with stems to hold onto!

I know that most of us have year-round access to the produce of our choice, but if there’s snow on the ground and you’re eating strawberries, those berries probably traveled a long way to get to you. Which consumes fuel. Which is expensive. Which releases carbon compounds into the atmosphere. Which contributes to global warming.

My advice? Eat what you find near your home and hold out until it’s in season. At the moment, that may mean more of last autumn’s apples, but hold on! You’ll be richly rewarded with tastier and more healthful produce. There’s hope for spring!

–Cynthia, Cyn’s Journal

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