A few days ago I picked my first strawberry of the season from my backyard patch. I was ecstatic, of course, but I could only celebrate the single berry, the rest of the patch was filled with white and green fruits. I went camping in the white mountains for two days and came back to hundreds of perfectly ripe rubies of sweetness. I dove into the bed and started filling my hands, soon realizing that I would need a very large basket to contain my bounty. I rushed inside, grabbing my roommate along the way for picking assistance, and returned to the garden. 

Although I devoured more than my fill of fruit while crouched in the patch, I still felt the need to construct a dessert around the fruit in order to properly celebrate our luck. I made dark chocolate souffles with a rhubarb compote inside and fresh strawberries on top. We toasted to our garden with tall glasses of ginger beer that I had made with lemons, ginger, and honey.

A week later we made strawberry-basil-basalmic ice cream.