Tag Archives: Strawberries

Ichigo (Strawberry) – Tanka/Haibun – July 24, 2015

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Louis Gurlitt, Alban Hills (1850)

sweet caresses
laying in Nemi’s woods
our basket full
of tiny strawberries
and love’s perfection

© G.s.k. ‘15

I lived in the “Alban Hills” for several years after returning from Africa in 1980.  It’s a series of small hill top  (not so small actually any more) towns surrounded by woods.  The famous book “The Golden Bough” writes about the area because of the cult of Diana, among other things.

Though it’s true that Nemi is famous in Italy for it’s wild strawberries, they can be found just about anywhere in the woods in this area.  Fact is, most Romans come to the Alban Hills to sit in lake front cafes, visit the fabulous restaurants, “trattorie” (traditional family restaurants) and “fraschette” (once upon a time a wine cellar where the owners supplied you with their wine and bread – you brought your own food, now a very expensive sort of trattoria)  to drink and eat cooled wine and spiced pork, have ice cream and strawberries at the various “gelaterie” and of course to cool off from the hot summer heat of the big city.

It’s rare to see Romans hiking around in the woods, you’ve got them more or less to yourself … so you can walk, pick strawberries and do a little courting away from indiscreet eyes.

summer delights
tangy  strawberry kisses
shared in the woods

© G.s.k. ‘15

Haiku – Strawberry – June 30, 2014

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walking in the woods
hidden in the undergrowth
red wild strawberries

I’ve always loved strawberries!  When I was a child, my favorite dessert was strawberry shortcake, and I’d always order it when we went out to eat.

Coming to Italy though, I discovered that there wasn’t only strawberry jam, shortcake and ice-cream!  Here they make sherbert, gelato, granita and of course strawberry tarts and just plain with whipped cream.  The biggest surprise was being able to use strawberry as a veggie – strawberries with mozzarella, basil and Modena balsamic vinegar, in risotto or in salads.

Living down in the Colli Albani just south of Rome took me to walking in the woods where we could find tiny wild strawberries, no bigger than your thumb nail but sweet and delicious.  In the evenings we’d go to Nemi, the local capital of wild strawberries where they have a local festival dedicated to this berry.

Lago di Nemi by GSK

Lake  Nemi near Rome by G.s.k.

cool summer dessert
mound of strawberries with cream
sitting on the lake

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Chevrèfeulle created a beautiful post for the strawberry prompt.  Not only are there some really fine haiku written by Jane Reichhold but some interesting facts and photos about the Beatles and John Lennon’s “Strawberry Fields” (and the song “Imagine” is there to read too!)!  So click Carpe Diem Haiku Kai to read this great post!

Strawberries – Fun Poem May 16, 2014

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With or without sugar
In a salad or in desserts
I love to eat fresh strawberries
As soon as they are found.

I’ve tried so many recipes:
Like one for a creamy pink risotto,
I’ve eaten them with mozzarella
With  balsamic vinegar as well …

I love them on my shortcakes
Topped off with white whipped cream
I love then in summer fresh crostata
Glazed with sweet aspic gelatine …

On my cereal for breakfast …
As a jam that covers toast
There’s just no fruit like strawberries
To brighten even the darkest morn.

Now I find that this noble fruit appeared
To reunite the world’s first lovers,
When sorely they had quarrelled …
First woman left first man in anger
Vowing never to return …
Creator’s sweet fresh strawberries
Which he put upon her path,
Enchanting her … she forgot her huff
So pleased was she with the lovely fruit
She wanted to find first man at once!
And so this lovely bright red fruit …
Brought her back home to love.

Just a kind of Whinny the Pooh thinking poem until I can come up with a fairy tale about strawberries, which is today’s prompt on Mindlovemisery’s Menagerie by Anja