CHILDHOOD MEMORIES| STRAWBERRIES
Strawberry Ice Cream and a California Childhood
Finding relief from the California summer heat with a delicious dessert
The first thing I think about when I think about strawberries is my childhood. Growing up, strawberry ice cream was my favorite ice cream flavor. It was my favorite dessert overall. I couldn’t wait for my mom to go to the store and pick up a carton of ice cream for us to eat.
In the summertime, this treat was even more of a welcome relief. The summers in Northern California got very hot and as kids, we were outside quite a bit. We didn’t sit inside the house as much as our parents did so we had to find ways to cool off when we did go outside.
A big part of summers was either eating store-bought ice cream or getting money from our parents to go to the ice cream truck that always drove through our apartment complex. When the neighborhood kids and I would hear the familiar tune blaring from the ice cream truck, we were all in a mad scramble to get outside with money from our parents.
I always wanted to get to the front of that line because I knew that the ice cream man would always have a limited supply of my favorite treat. I had to beat many of the girls to the truck since I knew that we shared that flavor as our favorite in common.
Sometimes, I’d have to settle for a chocolate nut ice cream or a Choco Taco and I was never a huge fan of chocolate. Also, it almost wasn’t worth it just to go to the truck to get a popsicle. It had to be some sort of strawberry ice cream treat. The Strawberry Shortcake Bar was always a good selection of ice cream treats and another one of my personal favorites.
Strawberry to me smelled like freshness. Berries in general gave me a good sensation when I would eat them but there was something special about that beautiful, delicious, and red berry.
I was in luck for my entire childhood as I had close access to the growing areas for the fruit since I lived in the Central Valley of California. Strawberries were super cheap and accessible whenever I wanted them. That allowed me to get them in all sorts of treats.
I’ll never forget getting a chance to eat them with my family and have them in the most delicious and frozen form of all. My love for strawberry ice cream never waned into adulthood although I now appreciate all sorts of flavors. That’s why I think of childhood most when I think of the flavor.
Do you enjoy strawberries? What did you do to kick off the strawberry season this year? What other types of food or desserts would you eat strawberries in?
