Soft fruit x 2

[vivdunstan]

Two lots for me tonight.

Firstly, for dinner dessert, fresh strawberries grown here in Monifieth. Served with a very generous serving of extra thick Scottish cream.



And for supper a little clutch of fresh cherries, bought at the Monifieth berry farm, and grown a bit further north here in Angus.



Yum.

Comments

[a_cubed]

We had strawberries a couple of times at the conference in Cambridge I went to last month. It reminded me that UK strawberries tend to be tastier than Japanese ones. Not that Japanese ones are bad, just not as flavourful as (good) UK ones (you can always find some poor ones).

[vivdunstan]

Even here there are variations. Eg supermarket strawberries are often more watery than I'd like. These ones we had last night were phenomenally juicy and sweet. Angus and Perthshire are particularly renowned in Scotland for their strawberries. My cousin has a berry farm near Blairgowrie - cousin via the Scottish Borders side, and our shared ancestors there grew berries too.

[a_cubed]

Scottish berries are often nicer than ones from England. The climate favours berries better. It's why Polish blueberries are so nice, too. Long summer days without it being too hot is perfect for ripening the berries.

In Japan, there is the weird thing that strawberries are in season from December to April, all grown under glass (well, mostly plastic these days).