It’s the Berries—As in Our Local Hoods
One of the absolutely luscious joys of living in Portland, Oregon is the berries, namely our melt-in-your-mouth June strawberries known as the Hoods. Once picked, the fragile Hood variety lasts just a day or two, so aficionados have to live here--or make a June pilgrimage--to partake.
Indeed, a true Oregon Hood connoisseur never ever eats those hard, overly-large store strawberries.
🍓No ma’am! They wait.
🍓They summon the patience that only a member of our dear Queen City knows.
🍓And when June arrives, they indulge in the intensely sweet red Hoods—Oregon's gold standard.
There are other varieties of course. You’ll see Albions in some groceries. This variety is a California berry that is also grown in Oregon because it produces a big spring crop and is easier for pickers to harvest than are the smaller, delicate Hoods. The Albion variety, though, is not as sweet or tender as a Hood berry. There’s also the bigger Tillamook strawberry that pickers love since they can fill their flats faster, but while this strawberry is big, it can’t hold a candle to the delectable Hoods.
Have I made my case? Chuckle. Wishing you success in finding some Hood strawberries to taste this year.
Resources
This year (May-June 2021) it's tough to find the Hood berries in the stores. Zupan's advertised them for awhile, but we don't find them on the shelves now.
Best bets are farmer's markets or grower stands like those our on Sauvie Island for example.
There are also a few strawberry festivals scheduled over the next few weeks in the Portland vicinity, and you can read all about them by clicking here.
Tip
Like tomatoes, 🍓strawberries are best🍓 if they never see the interior of a fridge. They will stand on out the counter over night but not much longer. But that’s okay as at the very least they ratchet up your morning cereal bowl to dizzyingly new heights! And of course, if you do need to refrigerate them, bringing them back up to room temp before serving works reasonably well.