Its Strawberry time
With so many fresh products available at the market it is easy to eat with the seasons in Spain. By taking advantage of what fruit and vegetables are plentiful at different times of the year it is not only easy to eat healthily but save money at the same time by tailoring your meals around seasonal fare.
The strawberries we enjoy in Europe today where originally South American, brought back to Europe in by French engineer Amédée-François Frézier in 1714.
This explains why in France they are called fraise and in Spain fresa, the English word strawberry is a bit of a mystery. One theory is that woodland pickers strung them on pieces of straw to carry them to market. Others believe that the surface of the fruit looks as if it’s embedded with bits of straw. Still, others think that the name comes from the Old English word meaning to strew because the plant’s runners stray in all directions and look as if they are strewn on the ground.
At the moment strawberries are the flavour du jour here in Spain with them available in the market for as little as 2.98€ a kilo which equates to $3.68 or £2.65 for 2.2lb of these little red delights.
The reason they are so inexpensive is that they are grown in the province of Huelva on the Gulf of Cadiz where they enjoy 248 hours of sunshine a month and temperatures that do not fluctuate much between night and day.
It also helps that Spain is the leading exporter of strawberries in the world yet keeps plenty back for domestic consumption.
For me, there is no better a desert than a bowl of fresh strawberries served with vanilla ice cream but they are equally as good with fresh cream so no matter how like your strawberries take advantage of the low prices and eat them now.
