A pre-strawberry-season strawberry tart

Because sometimes you just can't wait.

While I was in France last month, I was lucky enough to enjoy a beautiful lunch at the table of Athénaïs de Béru at the Château de Béru winery in Chablis. The meal finished with fresh strawberries, which were heavenly, though Mme de Béru mentioned that they were most probably greenhouse strawberries because it was still a bit early for the local field berries. She served them solo for dessert and really you couldn’t ask for a better end to a meal. I spotted strawberries again at the market in Beaune, as well as some imported from Spain at the local supermarkets.

The first fresh strawberries sold at he market in Beaune last month.

Back home, I found myself craving fresh strawberries, though for us here in Quebec, the season is still two months away. I made a cake last week with some berries from the Savoura company (the same that makes hothouse tomatoes), which starting selling strawberries a few years ago. They were equally magnificent, and — bonus! — they were on sale, meaning their usual prohibitive price was manageable.

A cake made with Savoura’s wonderful (and pricey) strawberries.

Since then, I’ve been craving berries, only to find the massive, deceptively labelled “Well-Pict” strawberries at my local supermarket. They were sold for song so I picked some up thinking a puff pastry strawberry tart was the best use for these monsters.