spring harvest à Paris : strawberries—the littler gals

The prized GARIGUETTE is a treat to behold in your mouth. An early French variety of strawberry, it starts showing up at marketplaces in Paris toward the end of April...mid-May, its presence exhaling spring in all her glory. The MARA des BOIS, a close "sister," follows on her heels and is available all summer. Both are sweet as can be, and petite... just a nibble the size of a caramel. A real delight in the world of "expanding" fruit: oranges will soon achieve the size of grapefruit, apples already have...presque. Apricots are on the way to taking over the dimensions of peaches which are themselves gaining on the territory of apples and so on. Seems they've even come up with a new hybrid of the Mara des Bois, half then again as large—Miss Charlotte—supposedly to replace the littler gal for its profitability. So much for sweetness being "in the little things of life." So get out there while you can and plop a few Gariguettes or Mara des Bois into your mouth !