First Strawberries

The taste of the season's first strawberry is heavenly. Or is it the scent of spring lilacs?

It's the time of year when we don't know what to do first outside, there is so much work. The garden is growing so fast we can't eat all the salad we've planted (thus any visitors take home a sack of fresh greens). The carrots are coming in, the radishes are edible, the chives already are flowering in sprightly purple pompoms. Martina, our garden helper, has done a tremendous job this year of planting to get ready for the summer visitors due this year. We want to make sure that everyone who visits ArtMill gets home-grown food.

Spring lasts about 2 days in this country, and then suddenly it's summer. We are swimming again in the lake each day. Eating outdoors again. Our 11-year-old is creating new recipes for anything chocolate-based, and of course nothing beats strawberries with chocolate. There is a large sign on our front door that I-Know-Who wrote shouting :"PLEASE PLANT MORE STRAWBERRIES!". There are never enough of some good things.