BC strawberries are coming!
And other berries too…

In a couple of weeks I’m going to go to the farm and pick strawberries, blueberries and raspberries
Strawberry picking, cherry stands along the highway, and the local farmers’ market signal the start of summer for me.
The strawberries from the local farms are juicy, fragrant and red all through.
And blueberries so luscious you’d eat them like candy…

There’s nothing like it, unlike the stuff that gets trucked in from unfamiliar places, with their white insides masquerading as strawberries.
Earlier this month I got found strawberries on sale at the grocery store, first harvest from California – they looked deceptively beautiful but didn’t taste as good; I got them anyway.

I made crumble, a rather forgiving dessert when you don’t have the best of berries.
I recently started making crumble, although I wonder why I waited so long to try them – it contains all the ingredients I love, it’s very adaptable and easy to prepare.
For my crumble topping, I mix a bit of olive oil with whole oats, graham flour, whole-wheat flour, and almond meal and turbinado sugar.

I add two tablespoons or so lemon juice to about two pounds of hulled and sliced strawberries, one to two tablespoons of sugar and two tablespoons of flour to help set the strawberry.
I then pile the crumble on the strawberry, and bake for about thirty minutes, it’s that easy!
I know it’s ready and done when the fruit bubbles up and turn gooey and delicious.

It’s my dessert comfort food, and I don’t feel too guilty when devouring it because it’s got healthy stuff in there – that’s what I tell myself after the fourth and fifth ‘seconds’.
I would write down a step-by-step recipe, but my recipe is so ad-hoc I wouldn’t do it justice.

It’s best served with ice cream, especially on those gray rainy days.