Let me take you down,

'cause I'm going to

Strawberry Fields.

Nothing is real

and nothing to get hung about.

Strawberry Fields forever.

~ The Beatles

We just came across perhaps the most outstanding produce deal we've yet seen (second only to those $0.99 pineapples we once found in Chicago): Organic Strawberries for $2/pound! We surely post about shopping for produce quite a bit, but if you're also friends with us on Facebook (especially Jim), you'll often read reports of our produce "scores." Bottom line: We love to shop around for fresh produce -- and organic strawberries can clock in well into the $4+/pound range.

Here in Portland, we're blessed not only with scores of larger venues that feature healthy organic selections, but there are also many farmers' markets in this area. So, shopping around can take time and planning. (We're still not fully settled here in PDX, so we're not yet fully up to speed with knowing the ins and outs of all of the better places for supplies. But, we're heading in that direction, for sure!)

In any case, it must be strawberry season because we're seeing organic strawberries come in at an unprecedented $2 per pound, which is as low (if not slightly lower!) than we've ever seen them anywhere, coast to coast! Oh sure, perhaps we've seen them in the $2 range before, but in our experience those were "clearance" strawberries -- just on the verge of rotting. We're talking about something altogether different: ?ABUNDANT strawberries, all at their peak!!

Naturally, we purchased 10 gorgeous pounds of these antioxidant-rich, Vitamin C-loaded, and manganese-containing, phytonutrient-dense, heart- and blood-healthy powerhouses. Six pounds went into the freezer for smoothies, and the other four certainly won't last long in our household. (In fact, we'll likely return tomorrow for more.) Now, had we a finished kitchen at the moment, we'd probably be on video here demonstrating raw strawberry shortcake or something. But, for now, we're enjoying them mostly au naturel.

As we said, we do enjoy them both fresh and frozen in smoothies. Not all raw foodists believe that frozen foods should be eaten (citing various reasons or theories including the temperature being unnatural, ?the nutritional content potentially being decreased, and even thoughts on whether freezing denatures the food). While we're open to there being some truth to some or all of these thoughts, we do not believe that it's an important enough issue for most people to spend too much time worrying about (as long as your diet is largely balanced and not made up of a wildly inflated proportion of frozen foods).

One unusual thing that many do not know about strawberries is that you can eat the greens. Many people cut them off and discard them, but we can tell you from personal experience that they're fully edible. When Jim makes his morning smoothie, quite often with fresh strawberries, he always throws in the entire berry, greens and all. We've found no literature online or in the library stating that this practice is beneficial or harmful, so all we can tell you is that Jim eats them, and reports no ill effects. Our *guess* is that they're likely "healthy," just like other greens, but not especially beneficial, as the amount ingested is generally negligible.

We're now in Strawberry Heaven, so please drop us a comment or a note with any suggestions on ways to enjoy this colorful, tasty bounty.