Big fat juicy strawberries from Whole Foods
Midsummer is the most evocative of times, that “school’s out *hallelujah*! ” feeling still hasn’t disappeared even as I hit my thirties (or as I like to say, entering my prime). As a kid Mama & Papa Johansen dispatched me to visit the Johansen elders in Aurland, a tiny village nestled in one of the most picturesque parts of western Norway at the end of a long fjord surrounded by rather foreboding mountains. This is Peer Gynt country, or so Norwegians would have you believe, where mischief and melody reign. Midsummers in Aurland were spent hiking through the valleys, fishing in the Aurlandsfjord, and foraging for wild strawberries. Aside from all this frolicking in the wild we grandchildren generally putzed around on the farm, picking fruit and playing games and pestering my grandmother for her delicious sour cream waffles. Let’s not mention the model-esque and seriously evil aunts, suffice to say they make Attila the Hun look like a gentle soul.
I often get asked how fruit can possibly grow in Scandinavia. “Um, it’s not the North Pole” I reply, indeed midsummer days are so long that it never gets dark. The extra UV light coupled with a temperate climate during summer makes the region ideal for growing plump summer fruit such as strawberries, raspberries, blackcurrants, redcurrants, plums, apples, pears…you get the idea. Nothing will ever taste as good as my grandfather’s crimson Senga Sengana strawberries, the fecundity of his crops enhanced with what he called “super-dung” from the neighbouring farmers. Lord knows what his turbo-powered fertilizer contained but I’ve yet to find fruit as rich in flavour over here as the kind I grew up with in Aurland.
So in this vein of nostalgia I spend every June hunting down the best strawberries this side of the North Sea. Thus far, between M&S, Waitrose, Riverford Organic and Whole Foods the latter’s strawberry supplier wins hands-down. Typically as I mention this I’ve realised the Whole Foods strawberry carton and label have been thrown out but you’ll have to take my word for it: delicious, juicy and intensely fragrant English strawberries, just as nature intended.
Scandilicious 