Some summer ingredients just won’t sit still. Consider the strawberry: Usually content to pose on shortcakes or huddle in jam jars, it’s staging a delicious escapade across the plate this season. At the height of summer in Maine, a plump berry might begin its morning hiding under dewy leaves at a local U-pick farm. By evening, that same strawberry could be dressing up every course of a meal—a restless little ruby racing from chilled soup to salad to seafood, then finishing sweetly atop dessert. In a state where we savor every second of summer, our strawberries are on the move, and they’re taking us along for one unexpected ride.
We Mainers wait all year for strawberry season, and it’s no wonder—the window is a blink. Maine’s strawberry season runs only from mid-June until early July, weeks when fields across the state blush red with ripe fruit. There’s a palpable giddiness in the air when the first berries arrive. Families flock to pick-your-own fields—whether in the rolling hills of New Gloucester’s Pineland Farms or along the coastal flats near Cape Elizabeth’s Maxwell’s Farm—eager to fill baskets with sun-warmed berries. At beloved spots like Spiller Farm in Wells, the red rush often kicks off by early June, signaling that summer (and all its sweet promises) has officially begun. It is this time of early summer when neighbors bump into each other between the rows, kids stain their fingers with juice, and local farm stands start selling out of shortcake biscuits and whipped cream. This truly is a strawberry fever dream, and it’s rooted in both tradition and terroir.
But the humble strawberry isn’t content to stop at shortcake this summer. It’s shattering its sweet-only reputation and traveling through an entire menu with style. Imagine a long June evening meal where this bright berry appears in every act. Through each course, our summertime hero transforms in color, flavor, and form, moving gracefully from savory to sweet. Let’s remember the journey of strawberries from field to fork and from one end of the menu clear to the other. And in the few short weeks that this story can unfold, we’re reminded to embrace this ingredient while we have it. After all, a Maine summer stops for no one—but if you follow the strawberry on its merry course, you might taste the whole glorious sweep of the season.
