Sharing The First Fruit

Dateline: 12 June 2006

The Lovely Marlene and I were picking weeds out of the strawberry rows last night just before dark. There are many unripe berries waiting for some sunshine to hasten them into glorious scarlet maturity. Amidst all the lush greenery of berry plants and weeds, I caught a glimpse of red. 

Sure enough, there was a lone, plump, picture perfect, Ozark Beauty strawberry. In two 50 foot rows of strawberry plants, this berry was the only one that wasn’t green— it was fully-ripened-red, clean and sparkling bright. Of course, I picked it.

I said, “Look at this Marlene! It’s beautiful! Here, you can have the first strawberry of the season.”

She said, “No, you can have it.”

I said, “How about I take a little bite and you can have the rest?”

She said, “How about you take a big bite and I’ll eat the rest?”

So I bit the end off (about 1/3 of the berry). It was tender, fresh, sweet, and heavenly good.

“Oh, Marlene. You gotta taste this!”

I held the partial berry out to her. She popped it in her mouth, closed her eyes and savored the incredible flavor.

All of which led me to the realization that the only thing better than experiencing the flavor of a sweet, ripe, organic strawberry, just five seconds after plucking it from the plant, is sharing that experience with someone you love.