Strawberries = Star-berries

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Today is my Dad's birthday... even though he died 16 years ago... 17, this  July ... we celebrate the same way--with strawberries, real whipped cream, and Angel Food cake.

When Dad was a kid, he rode his bike all over San Angelo, Texas, to find strawberries.... they didn't have frozen and it was just early February... so took an effort to ride the bike all over that wonderful hometown of his...

San Angelo, Texas...west central of the state ... not the strawberry capital of the world... the bike by the way was a girls' bike--a hand me down--and he installed a pipe on the body of the bike so it would look like a boy's....

I always had boys bikes and, truth be told.... there were instances when I got thrown forward and wished I had a girls bike .... for years, that’s what I thought Bike Racks meant ...

Ok... back to strawberries ....

One of my cousin's children, at a very young age, called them 'star-berries'... I like that.

Star-berries.

With Angel Food Cake.  And pure, sweet cream--the land of milk and honey.. at the Pearly Gate Cafe... 

So, Dad probably getting that divine concoction in Heaven today.  I realize that I have a primitive view of Heaven but you never know--maybe I'm right....

And, in grocery stores now, they sell year-round star-berries with the stems and unripen spots already cut off.  It's the best news since shredded cheese!  

Last week, the produce man in the Brookshire's Grocery Store in Whitehouse, Texas, when I asked if he had star-berries (yes, I actually used that pronunciation!).  He said the 'culled out' strawberries were $8.80 a pound!  Kind of talking me into the ones with the green stems and unripe tips....It's worth it to get the ripe and de-flowered, de-stemmed star-berries... 

De-flowered star-berries... that is another story for another crowd...

I plant 'star-berry' plants in our flower beds as a 'ground cover'... they are very forgiving, hearty, bird-friendly, spread out but don't harm other plants, and look much better than mulch.  They are not impacted by our 15 minutes of winter each year...

So today, this happened... I noticed that there were lots of ripe star-berries...  you know, they are one of few fruits that does not ripen after being picked.  

Dad could have just walked around the house and picked a bunch of birthday STAR-berries today.  And so many blooms and itty-bitty green star-berries promising to ripen as well... 

And, maybe he would have gotten a bike for boys for his birthday... maybe he did in Heaven today... you never know...

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