Strawberry Salsa with
Cinnamon-Sweet Baked Tortilla Chips

“Strawberry Bill” he was called, my Great Grandfather Gossard. He kept ten acres of berries in Webster City, where June was the big month for strawberry-picking in early-1900s Iowa. Late in life, my Gramma Kellogg, his daughter, wrote about Iowa strawberries in a memory book called “Stories for My Grandchildren.”

At sunup, she wrote, local women and children pinned on their straw hats to commence picking, Gramma and her sister Miriam too. The pay was 2 cents a quart. “No one got rich picking berries. A dollar a day was fair pay for work at that time.”

As the sun grew warm, the fragrance of the berries was intoxicating. Every now and then, Gramma wrote, a luscious-looking berry was too tempting and she would pop it into her mouth.

By late morning, berries were boxed for delivery to local grocers. Afternoons, Miriam pulled a little red wagon through town, selling just-picked strawberries door-to-door.

Years later, my dad sold berries door-to-door too. He remembers one woman’s hesitation. “The berries are just beautiful,” she said ruefully. “But they’re just too much money.” A quart of sun-ripe, sun-warm berries was a dime.

Strawberry Bill worked at the post office too. His government salary kept the family but the strawberries, story goes, put my gramma and her sister through college. His post office shifts left the berries unattended for a few hours and at the mercy of young boys from town who were, Gramma wrote, “thoroughly familiar with his work habits.” Years later, one remembered Strawberry Bill. “Best strawberries I ever tasted, those I stole at night from Mr. Gossard’s patch.”

On Sunday, I picked up a flat of home-grown berries from a roadside stand in Illinois and it got me to thinking about berry-picking a century ago, when my great grandfather was known as Strawberry Bill. Home, I worked through one quart after another, making two batches of strawberry jam, a bowlful of Strawberry Salsa and freezing some berries for later.

But the real treat was last night, shared with my dad who’s visiting for a few days, a five-generation Iowa tradition: Strawberry Shortcake Iowa-Style, not for dessert, for dinner.

Kitchen Parade is written by second-generation food columnist Alanna Kellogg and features fresh, seasonal dishes for every-day healthful eating and occasional indulgences. Do you have a favorite recipe that other Kitchen Parade readers might like? Just send me a quick e-mail via recipes@kitchen-parade.com. How to print a Kitchen Parade recipe. Never miss a recipe! If you like this recipe, sign up for a free e-mail subscription. If you like Kitchen Parade, you're sure to like my food blog about vegetable recipes, too, A Veggie Venture. Follow Kitchen Parade on Facebook!