Consider the Strawberry

Strawberry - Fraise

"The Strawberry was valued in Roman Times for its theraputic properties. Ancient hunters ate it to sharpen their powers of perception. The alchemists of the Middle Agers considered it to be a panacea, and as late as the 18th century Fontenelle (who died at 100) attributed his longevity to his fondness for strawberries. He ate them every day when they were in season.... Strawberries should never be soaked, handled too much or exposed to heat, and should be eaten 1 hour after their preparation..."

-from the Larousse Gastronomique

Meeting interesting people in Vancouver is like shopping for candy in an organic food store: You probably won’t find anything. If the gods of sucralose and fraternity show their favour upon you and you DO manage to find something that looks remotely delectable, it will most likely be past its expiry date or full of ingredients with impeccable organic pedigrees that taste like crap. Don’t get me wrong, it will probably look fantastic.

Indeed, we are surrounded by things that look fantastic but have no taste. I have found that this maxim can be applied to a myriad of objects, from produce to people. Take the California strawberry for example … It is plump, it is red and shiny and looks inviting. You bite into it, expecting cascades of unctuous strawberry flavour, and you find it has the taste and texture of watermelon rind. Of course, you can buy these year round and eat them whenever you want. How convenient! How sad.

I do not eat of these strawberries. I wait until June and then I take a ferry to Granville Island and buy a flat of the local berries. And I eat little else for about a week. I like to make strawberries marinated in balsamic vinegar and cracked pepper. Or strawberries dipped in sugar, or chocolate. But mostly, I just eat them as is. They are misshapen. Some have mold or bugs on them, some are rotten. But the taste!

The wonderful thing about real strawberries is that each one tastes completely different.
One is tart, the other one is a little too sweet. The quest is to find the perfect berry that has the perfect balance of both. Sometimes this takes quite a long time, but can you think of a better way to spend an afternoon?

What we eat most of the time are cultivated strawberries. But the best strawberries are the tiny wild ones that you find in the forest. When I picked berries in the summer with my mother we would have pails and pails of blueberries, but I would find, at the most only five wild strawberries. These were hidden immediately (lest someone steal them from you) to be savoured in a secret moment, , or to be offered to another as the ultimate token of affection. They were never apparent to the naked eye, but had to be searched for painstakingly, because they liked to hide under the grass. Wild strawberries have never been successfully cultivated. They have tried to do so but have failed. The wild strawberry remains elusive, individual and rare. But taste one of them, and you no cultivated berry will ever fully satisfy you again.

So I implore you to eat not of the impostor strawberry, the one that has been grown in fake soil to satisfy an immediate hunger. The strawberry encased in plastic, uniform and pale.

It is better to look for something that rings true; perhaps more perishable, perhaps less to look at, but something that is real.