It's strawberry-picking season! Strawberries are a delicious and nutritious fruit that we're able to enjoy nearly the whole year due to a global economy, but right now they are at their best and most affordable.
Americans eat 3 1/2 pounds of fresh strawberries every year, plus another 2 pounds of frozen berries per person. Although strawberries are available in many forms—jams, jellies, sauces, ice creams and sorbets, just to name a few—nothing compares to the taste of fresh, just-picked, vine-ripened strawberries.

After apples, strawberries are the country's most favorite U-pick fruit. The reason strawberries you pick yourself taste so much better than the ones you buy in the store is they are likely to be a variety the stores will never offer.

In grocery stores, size matters. The strawberries you see in the markets this month will be big, uniform in size and, most likely, very good. When you head out to the nearest U-pick farm, you'll find the strawberries range from teeny-tiny to gigantic. In nature, size doesn't matter. In fact, often times, the smaller berries are the most flavorful.

There is nothing quite as good as standing out in a strawberry field in the very early morning eating your way up and down the rows.

Make sure to bring children along, even if you have to borrow them. There's no greater way to teach them the impact the food choices we make have on our community, economy, environment and health than to show them where their food comes from and how it is tended from seed to plate.

Picking berries
Believe it or not, there's a proper way to pick strawberries.

• First, choose only the ripest ones. Be sure to peek below the leaves. Some of the best ones will be hiding, safe from the birds and other pickers.
  
  
• To pick, break the stem just above the berry. Be very gentle since they bruise easily.
  
  
• Berries that you intend to use right away can be picked any time of day. If you plan to save the fruit for a few days, before you use it, try to get out in the early morning or on a cool and cloudy day.
  
  Strawberries that are picked in the heat of the day tend to become soft and bruise more easily and won't keep as well.
  
  
• Keep picked berries in the shade of a tree or car with open windows while you're finishing up your picking.

Storing berries

• When you get the berries home, cool them as quickly as possible, but do not clean them until you're ready to use them. I know this goes against what your mother taught you about food, but the berries will keep longer if you don't wash them.
  
  Do not stack your berries too high or the ones on the bottom will become bruised. Store them in a container no deeper than 3 inches, uncovered, in the refrigerator for up to three days. After that, they'll start to lose their fabulous flavor as well as their beautiful red color.
  
  
• Hull your strawberries after you wash them to keep them from taking on too much excess water.
  
  
• Berries you can't work into menus and meals quick enough should be frozen after three days. Freezing fresh berries is very easy. To prepare berries for freezing, simply wash and cut off the stems. Berries can be frozen whole, in their own juice, crushed or whole.
  
  Freeze whole, unsweetened berries in a plastic freezer bag with as much of the air taken out as possible or use a vacuum sealer if you have one.
  
  To freeze berries in their own juice, crushed, sliced or whole, a "dry sugar pack" is the best way to preserve their flavor.
  
  To prepare the dry sugar pack, simply cut up or crush the berries in a shallow bowl or pan. Sprinkle sugar over the berries. Use 1/3 to 3/4 cup of sugar to each quart.
  
  Gently stir and let them stand for 30 minutes or until the sugar has dissolved. Pour the berries and their syrup in plastic freezer bags and seal. They will keep up to one year in the freezer.

Using berries
Strawberries are delicious in blended drinks such as smoothies and daiquiris, and in homemade ice-creams, gelatos, sorbets, crisps, pies, cookies, salads and even salsa.

To prepare delicious strawberry jalapeno salsa, slice 1 heaping pint of washed, hulled strawberries.

Place in a medium nonreactive bowl with the juice of one lime, finely minced jalapeno to taste and salt and pepper.

Stir until combined. Serve over grilled chicken.

To up the good calories, add diced mango, peaches, plums or nectarines.

kd@chefkathleen.com