[Gaviota strawberries from Harry's Berries]
You know how there's that cliché "once you have {this} you can never go back to {that}?" (And you can fill that right in with whatever dirty little thoughts you'd like.)
Of course we always get the point that the person is trying to make, but it's just a saying, and it's also a little bit of an exaggeration because, like, really?
Once you eat ramen from one of those ramen shops on Sawtelle will you really never go back to the sodium-bloated satisfaction of a package of neoguri?
Once you make macaroni and cheese from scratch, will you really never go back to the breezy ease of the blue box?
Once you eat a strawberry from Harry's Berries, will you really never go back to store-bought strawberries? Really?
I didn't want to go back. I didn't want to put the perfectly protective plastic clamshell in my cart. I didn't want to see the sad, paradoxical reality of overgrown specimens so solid and yet so anemic that their white-almost-green inner flesh had prematurely bulked up, too quickly outgrowing their still pale, thin skins on either end, wrapping their gross, grotesque masses around tiny, hard, embryonic yellow seeds.
But I did. I went back to store-bought strawberries.
Because I couldn't get out to the Santa Monica Farmers' Market yesterday morning before brunch. I didn't have enough time to drive across town. I didn't have enough patience to deal with the drive and the parking. I didn't have$16 in cash to spend on 3 tiny baskets of fleeting fruit.
So yesterday's strawberries from Bristol Farms conveniently up the street cost me a lot more than $3.99. It cost me a very unseasonal dignity-ninety-nine.
This morning, I woke up at the crack of dawn this morning. I drove across town to the Hollywood Farmers' Market. I paid $16 in cash for a 3-pack of the reddestripest, softestsweetest cutest little candybombs this side of summer.
Once you eat a strawberry from Harry's Berries, you might go back to store-bought strawberries once. ONCE, but never again after that.
(And perhaps a greater discovery than the berries themselves is their availability at a West Hollywood Farmers' Market. On Monday.)
available at Southern California Farmers' Markets
www.harrysberries.com
Hahnak says
miss 3rd street. those berries look so small and so sweet. so unlike anything i find at my supermarket...
Katherine Martinelli says
There is nothing like farm fresh, local strawberries. They are so much sweeter and juicier than the supermarket variety!
Dennis Wade says
The seascape are the best, I eat the greens cause I every part is delish. My sunday breakfast is a basket of 'em and a dozen luna bay oysters.
Brooks says
Can't deal with the store bought variety anymore...primarly because of your apt description of them. NorCal has plenty of growers akin to Harry's Berries.
Lauren Hayley says
Had to try them myself...they were amazing!! I got them from the Wednesday SM farmer's market.
Living, Learning Eating says
Those look amazing!
But I'm a college kid. *CRASH* - that was my reality check.
What's good to eat in Los Angeles on a student's budget? I'm vegetarian, love whole grains and foods, have a wicked sweet tooth, and will be in the USC area from August through December!
So excited - sun, beaches, USC, foooood :)
jenjenk says
i can't go back. it's the only strawberries i'll use in my strawberry shortcake. i've tried other strawberries and it just tastes BLAH...
Greg Park says
Never had them, but I wasn't surprised to see they sell the "Seascape" varietal. I finally planted 25 crowns this year...I hope they taste as good as the ones from the farmers markets.