Another seasonal first

Each March, it seems, we are delighted to find the first strawberries of the season showing up in stores and markets. And so it was yesterday, when we stopped at the (wonderful) Grand Frais food store in Bergerac. There they were on display — boxes and boxes of fraises gariguette, or Gariguette strawberries.

This is how another website described them, as quoted in my posting of March 25, 2012:

“They are small, soft and aromatic, reminiscent of wild strawberries. They taste simply fantastic. … Gariguettes are grown in the area between Carpentras, Avignon and Cavaillon, mostly under plastic tunnels to ripen early.”

And here’s a taste of how the Grand Frais display looked yesterday:

And they’re as good as they look.

Your logical question now would be: “And how many boxes did you buy?” And my answer would be: “None.” That’s because we knew that Gariguettes would be on offer at Daglan’s weekly market this morning, and my wife Jan could buy some then. Which she did.