If you like strawberries, this must be your favorite time of year.

It's picking time.

Fresh-picked strawberries differ from those cultivated by large, commercial growers, who often produce hybrid varieties suited for shipping. Fresh-picked, therefore, win the taste test hands down.

Here are some tips for picking and then handling your berries afterward:

• Pick your berries in the morning when it is cool and the bugs are not so active.

• Cool berries as quickly as possible after picking. Do not let the berries sit in the sun or in a hot car.

• Do not wash or hull the berries until you are ready to eat or prepare them.

• Store berries in an airtight container in the refrigerator.

• Try to use all berries within a few days of picking. If you are going to freeze or can them, do it as soon as possible to retain the freshness of the berries.

• Buy small quantities of berries more frequently.

• You can create your own packages of IQF (individually quick-frozen) strawberries. Here's how to do it: Wash berries and remove hulls. Place berries in a single layer on a cookie sheet, and place in freezer until frozen. Remove from freezer and pack the berries in a Ziploc bag, label and date and store in freezer.

Keep reading for recipes and pick-your-own locations in southeastern Wisconsin.

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 Father's Day is a week away, and I have some gift suggestions if your dad likes to cook. Before you write me off, remember that grilling is cooking, and what father doesn't like doing that?

If you've got tons of money, get him the Big Green Egg BBQ Grill. It's a smoker, grill and oven all rolled into one. You can cook any kind of food on it, any time of year. The outer shell is ceramic, so it keeps the heat in (and it can get up to 700 degrees), eliminates hotspots and stays cooler to the touch on the outside. It's heavy, close to a 100 pounds and it costs about $600 or a bit more - even at a discount store like Sam's Club.

For smoking, the BGE can't be beat, but there are drawbacks. It's heavy, so it's not as portable as other grills. It's ceramic, so if you drop it, it may crack. And then there's the price.

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 The National Restaurant Association held its 90th annual Restaurant Show May 16-19 at McCormick Place in Chicago. If you're in the food business, you go to the show to spot trends, check out new products and equipment and network. This year's show was heavy on the latter because the restaurant industry has been hit hard by this recession.

This is the largest show of its kind in the Western Hemisphere, and featured the International Wine, Spirits & Beer Event. People showcasing their products were from all 50 states.

The restaurant industry is one of the largest private-sector employers in the country with more than 13 million workers (9 percent of the population)?in 945,000 locations. Sales this year are projected to total $566 billion, according to the NRA.

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Americans now consume an average of about 30 pounds of lettuce per year - five times more than they ate 100 years ago. Part of the reason for the popularity of green salads is the increased availability of ingredients.

Generally, the darker the color, the more nutrients you'll get. For example, romaine or watercress has seven to eight times as much beta-carotene, two to four times the calcium and twice the potassium as iceberg lettuce. Greens are good sources of vitamin C, beta-carotene, folate, some calcium and provide plenty of dietary fiber.

An extraction made from spinach is responsible for the discovery of folic acid. Folic is actually a derivation of "folium," which is Latin for leaf. This extraction from the leaf of spinach was found to be effective in the treatment of anemia. Anemia, as most people know, also is treated with iron supplements, and spinach also has a lot of iron. 

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Are you planning to bake some treats this Memorial Day weekend? The holiday seems to demand something in red, white and blue, so I'm combining ruby- red rhubarb with fresh blueberries to create breakfast muffins, crepes for brunch and a dessert crisp.

If you don't have a clump of rhubarb, ask around for some. Mine finally took off after rain last week. Some grocery stores also carry it, but it's expensive; the cost might encourage you to plant a couple of clumps.

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Birds are to fault for people thinking they can just go along roadsides and pick their own asparagus like nobody's business. These avian gardeners  have carried seeds far and wide. On a good day in May, you might think it must be a naturally occurring plant, since there's so much of it popping up. 

In truth, asparagus is a cultivated vegetable. It has been a part of  gardens worldwide for more than 2,000 years. During that time, it has been thought of as a luxury item, because of its short growing season. 

King Louis XIV of France went so far as to have his gardeners grow asparagus in special greenhouses so that he could enjoy it year-round. But most folks, until the invention of the freezer, had to do with an asparagus spurt for a short three or four weeks.

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