Strawberries are early this year.  I have a few plants in the garden.  I just learned that in addition to getting slugs drunk in a dish of beer, I can spray the plants with a hot pepper solution to keep the slugs away.
Supposedly, it will also work on my sunflowers and eggplant, etc.  Yet another use for sirachi!  I found great, overfilled quarts of low-spray strawberries at the Central St. Farmhouse in Bangor for $4.50.  I also admired the hops growing up the ropes in their garden and was told that they will have hops plants in the near future.  I think I will put up a small trellis in the garden and plant some.  The flowers are quite lovely and I remember seeing them in the garden at the Page Farm and Home Museum.  I turned some of the strawberries into a cool summer mousse.  Just blend four cups of cleaned strawberries with about a third of a cup of sugar in the processor.  I added a third of a cup of my homemade limoncello but you can add a quarter cup of lemon juice a couple of tbsps of any other liqueur.  Some recipes call for marsala but I think it takes away from the strawberries.  I mixed 1 1/2 pkgs of unflavored gelatin with a quarter cup of hot water and whisked it into the strawberries.  Then I whipped about 3/4 cup heavy cream and folded it in.  I put it in dessert cups and let it chill for about 5 hours.  You can put the filling into a prepared pie shell (regular or graham cracker) for a strawberry "chiffon" pie.  Add more whipped cream and few strawberry slices for an easy, elegant, cool dessert on hot summer nights.