Strawberry Season Has Arrived

There is a certain kind of joy that only strawberry season can bring.

It starts quietly enough, with a few berries ripening in the garden, bright red beneath the leaves. Then, almost overnight, there they are by the quart—sweet, sun-warmed, and ready faster than we can seem to pick them. The bowls begin to fill. The kitchen counter disappears beneath baskets and colanders. Someone wanders through and steals “just one,” which becomes three, because strawberry season has its own rules.

Early summer in St. Denis tastes like fresh strawberries stirred into vanilla yogurt in the

Fresh strawberries just picked from the garden.

morning, or spooned generously over a bowl of ice cream after supper. It smells like jam bubbling on the stove, filling the kitchen with that unmistakable sweetness that says summer has truly begun. It sounds like ice clinking in glasses of strawberry lemonade as the days grow longer and warmer, and we find our way back to the porch in the evenings.

This is the season of sticky fingers and open windows. Of school days winding down and summer stretching out ahead. Of afternoons that slow down just enough for conversation with friends and neighbors, and evenings spent watching fireflies blink across the yard while the crickets begin their chorus.

It is also the inspiration behind this season’s Strawberry Collection at St. Denis Sundries.

The watercolor-style images of berries, soft blossoms, and garden sweetness in this collection began as photographs of strawberries and lavender fresh from my garden. As the berries come ripe, I can’t help snapping pictures of their bright color and perfect shapes. These are real strawberries I get to share with you, picked at the height of the season, and finding their way into the snack bowls and lemonade glasses on the porch.

From there, they became soft berries, blossoms, and garden-inspired designs I created to

bring a little bit of strawberry season into your home, your kitchen, your garden, and your favorite quiet corners.

There are tumblers for iced coffee, sweet tea, and strawberry lemonade; totes for market mornings; pillows for porch rockers; and cheerful little pieces for home and garden. Each one carries a bit of early summer with it, bright, simple, and sweet.

Strawberry season does not last forever. The berries ripen quickly, the jam jars fill the pantry, and before long we are on to the next summer pleasure. But while strawberries are here, they are worth celebrating.

So pour the lemonade. Slice the berries. Pull up a chair on the porch.

Early summer has arrived, and it tastes like strawberries.