May is a wonderful time to enjoy the returning warm weather, spend more time outdoors, and get our gardens planted. It will be some time before we can enjoy the fruits of that garden, with one glorious exception- strawberries! These perennial plants bear fruit in May and June (and in April in some areas). What better way to celebrate spring than with a strawberry party!
Strawberry parties were fairly common in England and the US during the Victorian era. Early strawberry parties would begin in the daytime and everyone would pick strawberries before consuming them in a variety of recipes, either indoors or outside. In America, the parties evolved into evening events, when people would dress to the nines and dance outdoors, along with enjoying strawberry ice cream, strawberry lemonade, and strawberry shortcake, among other treats. Mary Todd Lincoln was especially known for throwing strawberry parties. Over time, these parties were used as fundraisers, and in areas that grow a lot of strawberries, they became public festivals that still go on every spring. Read the history of strawberry parties at Atlas Obscura, and you might want to throw one yourself.
(Image credit: John F. Francis)
