Mary, where is the Chocolate?

Do you remember those chocolate Easter eggs and bunnies you longed for as a child? You could hardly wait to find them in your Easter basket. Finally the day arrived, and you broke off an ear and started chewing it. Ugh! The chocolate was overly sweet, and mostly paraffin. Yet, because of your desire for chocolate, you ate the whole thing.

Since you have become an adult, the quality of your chocolate is much more important than the way it is packaged. If you have never tasted real Swiss chocolate, you have missed out on one of the great treats in life. It is dark, not nearly as sweet as milk chocolate, and simply melts in your mouth.

That brings us to the strawberry. All year long you pass the strawberries in the produce section of your super market. Finally, you break down and buy a box of those California berries. They are large and beautiful, but absolutely tasteless and rather hard. They are bred for shipping rather than eating. During the late winter you can get Florida berries grown at Plant City. They have a little more taste than the California berries, but they are also hard, in fact, they border on being crisp. Yet, because of your desire for berries, you serve and eat the whole box.

If you live in the Northeast, and particularly in Lancaster County, PA, you can find newly ripened strawberries during the last weeks of May and early June. They are usually sold at small stands at the end of a farm lane. In Lancaster County, the Amish and Old Order Mennonites have them for sale. The best of these berries is the Earliglow. It is sweet, red to the core, and soft to the bite. The aroma permeates the kitchen when they are being prepared.

Personally, I like them on cereal and on other desserts. They make great pies, particularly when served with whipped cream on top. However, the favorite way of eating them is served on shortcake with milk and sugar. Mmmm! Mmmmm! If you want a really special treat, get some Earliglow strawberries, and pick out the largest ones. Melt some Swiss chocolate in a double boiler, and dip the berries in the chocolate. Put them in the refrigerator to cool, and you have a snack, par excellence. As we say in Pennsylvania Deutch country, Gut Essen!