Green Bluff strawberries ready to go

The sweet taste of summer is here, about two weeks ahead of schedule.

Green Bluff growers have U-pick strawberries ready to stain your fingers. In fact, some farms opened up the berry patches this past weekend. Pickings have been limited so far but they should be coming on pretty strong this weekend and for the next few weeks, growers said.

Walter’s Fruit Ranch is celebrating the season this weekend with a Strawberry Festival on Saturday and Sunday. There will be U-pick and picked berries available, along with live music, barbecue, pie, shortcake and other strawberry goodies, says owner Mark Morrell. The farm is open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. both days. The address is 9807 E. Day Road, and the phone number is 238-4709.

Other growers with strawberry patches include Knapps, 238-6919; Siemers Pick & Pack, 238-6242; Eleven Acres, 238-9473; and Strawberry Hill, 238-6919.

Some farms and the Harvest House also offer picked berries from other Washington growers. It’s always wise to call to make sure they haven’t been picked out. A map of the Green Bluff farms is available on the growers’ Web site at www.greenbluffgrowers.com.

The warm spring months also mean other local produce will be ahead of schedule this year. One grower said he expects cherries by July 5 — about a month earlier than usual.

Watch next week’s IN Food section for a review of “The Berry Bible” by Janie Hibler and some luscious recipes from her book.

Decisive shoppers

According to The Washington Post, we’re not only spending less time preparing food, we’re spending less time picking it out.

The average time a grocery shopper spends in the store dropped from 25 minutes to 12 minutes per visit in the last decade. And, despite an avalanche of new products and endless varieties, it now only takes shoppers an average of 12 seconds to select a brand off the shelf.

Now, if only the checkout lines would get faster, too.

Poppy seed cookies mistake

In a story in the June 2 edition of the IN Food section a recipe for Lemon Poppy Seed Cookies in the story about the new cookbook “125 Best Toaster Oven Recipes” by Linda Stephens was misprinted.

Look inside today’s section for the corrected recipe.