Strawberries

How can one word invoke such astounding feelings and memories?  For me I have always loved eating strawberries and I even have a small strawberry patch.  Easting sun ripened strawberries is always a great summer treat, but I met my match when I tasted Norwegian and Finnish strawberries.  I have to assume that their cold winters and slow growing season does something different to their berries.

I visited Finland for the first time in 2004 and never have I fell so hard for a strawberry, so this summer when I returned to Finland, I mentioned to my friends that I had to eat Finnish strawberries.  I was so desperate that I wanted to bring them home with me, but alas I could not.  So within hours of arriving in Finland, I tasted the first Finnish strawberries I had eaten in 7 years.  They were even better than I remembered.  They are so juicy that they just melted in your mouth.  They tend to be smaller than our strawberries here and sweeter.  So sweet and fragrant that you could never believe it.  My friend's mom told me where to find the wild ones at their summer cabin and those are the ones pictured here.  If you ever have a chance or happen to find yourself in Finland, you would be missing out if you don't eat their strawberries.  More than half the days I was in Finland I ate strawberries and the first was as good as the last.