Strawberry Breezes
It has been a long, often cold spring in the northeast. We had a mini-heatwave and then we came back to what feels like eternal March. The skies are often gray and the winds force you into extra layers that you thought you could leave behind, It seems like time has stood still, but the days are longer and when the sun does shine it does so longer. Underfoot the grass has turned greener, the springs flowers and tree blossoms have managed their fitful yet faithful appearances. Within all this, the strawberries are starting to take shape. What can their process teach us?
The late spring appearance of juicy red strawberries is almost here. Not to be confused with the ones in the store, there are small green tendrils growing alongside a set of stairs, and in the pots tended sometimes. With little attention, the humble white flowers give way. Berries appear, heart-shaped and as reliable as the spring itself. Deliberate, self-directed, they grow without my help, and undeterred by the weather’s erratic moods.
I have loved these berries since childhood. I remember singing to them as a child, as they grew alongside the path in our first backyard. I remember the joy of being small and touching something else that was small and still so powerful, so capable of changing frowns into smiles. Bright, tangy, the berries were the first fruits to the garden.
A few years ago I learned that strawberry leaf can be used in tea. It’s light and takes well to blending. I tried it. I fell deeper into love with the little plant, which I found out was in the same family as roses.
Alone the leaves are almost too light, but for me they are plenty. You can deepen the flavor by crushing the leaves and letting them sit. I put a good video on that process below, and I think I might do that now, too. Spring is a time to experiment with what is alive and the garden is the best lab I know for finding surprises.
After a couple of days of being crushed and then left to dry, you can make that fruitier, more proper strawberry leaf tea, the kind that you can blend and keep. It depends on your mood. Right now, I’m into the rawness of the moment. The tea is diuretic, and so I’m into the gentle cleanse as well. Spring is detox time. Strawberries help us get rid of our stuck toxins, and even our grief.
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The winds of spring have been tough on our bodies but Earth always give us exactly what we need if we let her. With every wind, there are wings we can use to sail them.
Don’t have strawberries in your garden?
There’s still time. You can start today. You can start playing with a few plants. You won’t get enough plant or fruit to supply yourself with medicinal food all season, but you will get a taste of it. Sometimes all it takes is a taste of something to keep it alive in you. Like a silver lining on a cloud or a rainbow in the showery sky, you have to play. Get too stuck and winter will never leave you from the inside.
Spring is a season of rawness, of winds and rains and sometimes gray days. The showers exist so the blooms can burst forth with the energy of the land and the kiss of sky. And somehow this drama makes spring foods extra special, and spring leaf teas extra useful. Spring greens of every kind are full of promise, energetically they nourish your core and push out what you no longer need to hold.
If you’re trying to shake off winter, or maybe you’re already calling in summer, then you might want to ponder the strawberry on your plate and put some in your cup. The heart-shaped fruit was once considered sacred for its relationship to the sacred burning of life.
Strawberries and their leaves can soothe the joints, and rid the body of impurities, and you can grow them right now. You can drink the tea from their leaves today by buying some plants and harvesting just a couple of leaves from each immediately. Add in some raspberry leaves if you have them and you can tone the entire digestive system, especially the smooth muscles. Maybe that’s why Aphrodite was associated with strawberries that once grew wild, because these berries pack the beauty of service, and delight. They help us take life in so it doesn’t pass us by.
In technical terms strawberries are packed with antioxidants with names like ellagitannin, which is a potent polyphenol, the same kind you find in pomegranate, and which can help regulate blood sugar spikes. Strawberries as a fruit are a valuable source of vitamins and minerals, including vitamin C, B9 (folate), manganese, and potassium. So when it comes to the winds of the season, spring says, get nourished and do it with a tender heart. Open to the strawberry and you’ll experience a gentle kind of beauty, the kind that says the winds will turn warmer and the sun will surely shine through. And if it all goes to hell? you’ll be stronger and ready for the chaos. And that is the purpose of food, to be so pleasurable and so healthy that you never sacrifice purpose for taste.
Go ahead and plant something, and see what grows.
*Remember, I am not here to diagnose or prescribe for you, only to offer my understandings and my musings.
Love Mariette