Chocolate-Covered Strawberries and Locally-Grown Produce

Strawberries are right in season (well, they were a few months ago when I photographed these), and, while I'm not much for fruit (allergies), I'm very much in favor of chocolate in most forms.

I'm a big believer in locally grown produce, or at least getting what you eat as close as you can to where you're living. In general, produce tastes better, and is better quality when it doesn't have to travel too far.

Tomatoes (a.k.a. Lycopersicum) should be eaten in the Summer (August, at best), because that's when they've gotten the most sun, and are nice and ripe. They're not the 'bulletproofed', travel-toughened ones that we usually get in supermarkets (blech).

Are you aware that most of those "supermarket tomatoes" are exposed are picked while they're still green and are exposed to artificial "ripening agents" subsequent to transport? Typically, they are exposed to ethylene (the chemical which causes tomatoes to ripen naturally) in the form of a gas. However, the ethylene doesn't effectively penetrate to the interior of the fruit. Therefore, ripening agents may only redden tomatoes rather than truly ripening them. That's why the red tomatoes that you get in the wintertime are mealy and whitish inside. Often, those off-season tomatoes are also from another part of the world. Anyway, I mention this, because off-season strawberries strawberries grown for the mass market have been bred for size and ship-ability, not flavor. The ones that you find in your local supermarket usually come from South America when off-season. This time of year, however, they come from America's South or California.

BTW, ever wonder why strawberries are called “strawberries”? I mean, blueberries are blue, blackberries are black, etc., etc., so where does the ‘straw’ come in? Well, strawberries grow on little vines along the ground. When they sit in the dirt they rot very quickly. Growers like to put a lot of straw in the fields for the berries to rest on. That's why they call them "straw" berries. Just so you know.

So, anyway, I was recently recruited to make some chocolate covered strawberries for a bridal shower, and then the following weekend, made some more to bring over to a friend's house upstate.

Utilizing the services of a double boiler, some semisweet and white chocolate and a pastry bag, I set upon the task of enrobing them in delicious cocoa goodness. Oh, and two pounds of West Coast-sourced strawberries.

Two pounds of strawberries and two pounds of semisweet chocolate later (and just a bit of white drizzled across them), deliciousness had been achieved.