Some Kinda Good with Rebekah Faulk - Celebrate spring with strawberries

    Happy spring! We have survived the long, cold, dark, snowy and rainy days of winter, and I couldn’t be happier to lay the power outages to rest and welcome the sunshine, watch the azaleas reveal their colors and see the earth bloom back to life. I’ve always loved this season, and I may be a little biased. My birthday is in April, the Masters golf tournament returns to my hometown of Augusta, Ga., and my family and I keep I-95 South hot with trips to my favorite vacation destination: St. Simons Island in the beautiful Golden Isles of Georgia. Springtime also means the Statesboro Mainstreet Farmers Market returns! It kicks off on Saturday, April 5, and downtown will be alive and well once again — with those friendly farmers’ familiar faces delivering the freshest and best organic produce, meats and cheeses available in these parts — every Saturday morning.
    Nothing gets my heart racing like first sight of the season’s bounty. Bright red, plump, juicy, sweet strawberries are in season now, and they’re one of the prettiest and healthiest fruits available. Since ancient Roman times, wild strawberries were used for a wide variety of medicinal purposes such as alleviating inflammation, fever and kidney stones. Rich in vitamin C and supportive of heart health, today, there are over 600 varieties. Experts say consuming them on a regular basis can reduce the risk of heart disease, diabetes and cancer.
    Highlighted in sweet and savory dishes, there is no shortage of recipes in which strawberries are the main ingredient. I like to eat them simply sliced over a bowl of cereal or simmered down with sugar to make strawberry preserves, used as a pop of color to garnish cakes, chopped with onions and tomatoes to make salsa or sliced and tossed with candied Georgia pecans, dried cranberries and feta cheese in a mixed green salad. Perhaps the most popular way to make use of them in the South, though, is the tried-and-true strawberry shortcake. I can’t count the number of times my mama has served up macerated strawberries spooned over the top of hot, buttery biscuits with a dollop of fresh, sweetened whipped cream for Sunday dinner on that classic blue-and-white china pattern. 
    I’d like to share Ina Garten’s recipe for Strawberry Country Cake with you. It’s a dessert that’s made an appearance many times at my family’s kitchen table and one I know you’ll enjoy. For more springtime recipes, visit somekindagood.org. I’ll leave you with the words of Robin Williams: “Spring is nature’s way of saying, ‘Let's party!’ ”

    The Mainstreet Statesboro Farmers Market will celebrate Strawberry Days on April 26! The market is open from
9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. every Saturday downtown in the Sea Island Bank parking area. Watch Rebekah here as she visits the market to purchase strawberries and cooks up a fresh-baked Strawberry Country Cake.

    Rebekah Faulk is a Georgia food writer and Statesboro-based TV personality. A Season 2 contestant on ABC's “The Taste,” she blogs at SomeKindaGood.org, a Southern, coastal food blog highlighting East Coast restaurant reviews and Lowcountry-inspired recipes. Follow her on Twitter at @SKGFoodBlog or search Facebook for Some Kinda Good.