THE TASTE OF HISTORY

Strawberry season is special here, and always too short.

According to the Ladies Village Improvement Society's 60th Anniversary Cookbook, "a Strawberry Festival was put on shortly after the L.V.I.S. was founded, to raise money. Trestle tables were laid in Clinton Hall one evening in late June," the cookbook recounts, where "there would be a choice of hot shortcake smothered in cold strawberries and dripping with heavy cream; or fresh strawberries and cream with layer cake; or homemade strawberry ice cream with cake, and oceans of coffee."

Wainscott, it noted, a "potato-farming community with strawberry raising on the side, held a successful Strawberry Festival in 1948 as part of the town-wide Tercentenary."

The cookbook offered as well its version of:

STRAWBERRY JAM

1 qt. berries
1 qt. sugar

Cap and wash the berries. Drain them dry as possible. Put them and the sugar into a saucepan, heating slowly. Let it boil exactly 20 minutes, then turn it out into a bowl and let stand at least 12 hours. Pour in glasses and cover without heating again.

Mrs. Andrew Carson