Wow! Those Are Big!

Normally, the phrase I used for the title of this post would be reserved for something other than fruit, but in this case, I felt that the description more or less fit the item I was describing. A few weeks ago, my oldest daughter, Jen, blessed us with a gift from Harry and David's for Mother's and Father's days combined. It sounds like for the next few months we'll be receiving whatever fruit is in season. I'm fairly certain they won't be sending any watermelons through the mail, but there may be peaches, plums or nectarines, I'm not really sure. This month it was strawberries, and as you can see, they dwarf any normal sized strawberries that most of us have ever seen. I didn't know what to compare them to, so I used a teaspoon to give you some idea of the size.

Of course strawberries are easy to bruise, and it would be disappointing to open a box of them and find that they had been damaged in transit. The folks at H&D solved that problem with a custom made strawberry box with a slot for each berry. I've never seen anything like it. There is a insulated insert for both the bottom of the heavy duty box as well as the top. If this is the way they treat their fruit, I can't imagine how they must treat their kids. Perhaps they wrap them head to toe in bubble wrap before sending them out to play. No doubt a bike ride would entail a helmet with extra cushion, knee pads, elbow pads and clothes that are electronically controlled so the child doesn't get hypothermic or suffer with heat exhaustion. When I was a kid, my folks were glad for me to leave the house, and as long as I had clothes on, they didn't worry too much about me. A helmet would have gotten a guy beat up, and elbow or knee pads were for the high school foot ball team. My how the times have changed.

I've hung on to the package the strawberries came in. I just don't have the heart to discard it. Surely something that is so well put together can serve another purpose somewhere down the pike. I'm not sure what yet, but I'm open to suggestions.

In the meantime, I'm looking forward to seeing what June's offering will be. I'm ruling out pineapples and watermelon, and persimmons, guava's, ugly fruit, star fruit and dragon fruit aren't very likely to arrive either. However, whatever it is, I'm sure it will be tasty.