Kendall, Miami-Dade County – Florida, U.S.A. Recipes are like books. We’re drawn to them by something we know or are curious about — an ingredient, a style, a chef. They require interaction, imagination, and trust. Their length and complexity can determine whether we try them and if we finish. Some fail to meet our expectations; but others exceed them, and are worth repeating and sharing. Most importantly, like books, recipes are journeys. They unfold, revealing not only a new dish, but, if we’re lucky, inspiring us to explore and experience further.
I recently came across a recipe for strawberry curd — I love strawberries — that was so elegantly simple and evocative of the freshness of the outdoors and sunshine, that I had to try it. Swept up by the novelty of it all, I insisted upon selecting and harvesting my own fruit (and baking some homemade buttermilk biscuits to accompany).
Finding the perfect place to pick fresh strawberries meant reading up on the history of strawberry cultivation and gaining a cursory understanding of the commercial growing industry in the US. It meant quickly discovering that Florida’s sandy soil and weather make it ideal for growing the fruits and one of the few places where they grow in the winter. It also required researching “u-pick” strawberry farms near my home in Miami, which led to conversations with farmers about the growing season, winter crowds, going organic, and the challenges of worms.
Eventually, I found myself at Strawberry Fields of Kendall, a local u-pick farm, on a beautiful, mild Sunday morning. After I’d filled my plastic carton to the brim with deep red fruit, I wandered through rows of tomatoes and pored over the offerings at the farm stand. I left with the main ingredient for my recipe, an appreciation for the year-round availability of produce in Florida — it is, after all, mid-winter — and a personal challenge to better incorporate local fruits and vegetables into my daily meals.
A basic recipe, stumbled upon and tried, had led to much more.