The bright red berries - prized for shortcakes, jams and their sweet flavor - also make tasty salad dressings, bread, salsa, fruit leather and even gummy worms.
"People just can't wait for fresh strawberries," said Nellie Oehler, who works for the Lane County office of the Oregon State University Extension Service. "There are a lot of things you can do with them."
Strawberries are delicious sliced into a spinach salad, then tossed with a strawberry vinaigrette dressing and topped with chopped nuts, Oehler said.
They can be used in smoothies, over ice cream and - fresh or dried - on breakfast cereal.
One of the more unusual ways to prepare strawberries involves cooking them into a thick, glossy goo, then squeezing the mixture through a hole cut into a sandwich bag to make gummy worms, slugs or bugs. Like their processed counterparts, strawberry gummy worms are sweet and chewy. And they're fun to make.
Oehler, who leads an eight-week training program for master food preservers as part of her family community development job, recently showed off some of her tricks to a group of home cooks.
"You can make any shape you want. You just don't want it to get too thick," said Susan Petersen, 58, of Eugene.
The process begins with mashed up fruit, sugar and a clear cooking gel. After the candies are formed, they are dried to the appropriate texture in a food dehydrator or a warm oven.
"I think they're great, especially as snacks for my son," said Kellie Green, 38, of Eugene, who has a 4-year-old. "I think he'll have fun making them with me."
Also easy and child-friendly is yogurt fruit leather made simply with strawberries, yogurt, sugar and a food dehydrator.
"If you want to get a little more calcium in your kid's diet, then this will do it," Oehler said.
The strawberry season gets its start about this time each June and lasts for about a month. Everbearing varieties of strawberries produce until the first frost, after a brief break in August, said Pat Patterson, coordinator for the Master Gardener Volunteer Program at the Lane County office of the OSU Extension Service.
In Lane County, about 100 acres are used for growing strawberries commercially, said Ross Penhallegon, OSU/Lane County Extension agent. That includes 15 acres at Lone Pine Farms in Junction City.
Warm weather makes the berries sweet, said Lorie Jensen, Lone Pine's owner and president. Because of warm spring days, she was hopeful that it would be a great strawberry season.
Commercially, about six types of berries are grown, but "a lot of the strawberries are growing in backyards," Patterson said.
The varying types of strawberries have their individual food-preparation niches:
Shuksans: These are dark red with a distinct strawberry flavor. They are good for freezing and for slicing.
Bentons: These berries have an orange color, are softer and have a very high sugar content. They're good for making jams and smoothies.
Totems: These are deep red and firm, so they slice well.
Hoods: The berries are very sweet, but don't hold up well under wet weather. They're excellent for ice cream.
Redcrests: This type is difficult to grow, but best for processing.
"The first thing I think people should think about is how to extend the season," said Laura Hinrichs, a master food preserver and retired attorney who lives in Springfield.
For year-round enjoyment, strawberries can be dipped in pectin, frozen on a cookie sheet, then put into a bag or another container in the freezer. The pectin keeps them firmer when they're defrosted.
Strawberries can be difficult to cook with because they're delicate, Hinrichs said, but they are good for pureeing and then cooking.
An example of that is strawberry bread, which also can be made as a cake. It has a nice strawberry flavor, Hinrichs said, and is a consistent hit when the master food preservers serve it at local farmers' markets.
"It's a very moist, very easy cake," Hinrichs
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