It's that time again.

My friends, the day I've been waiting for has finally arrived. Strawberries are here, and all is right with the world.

I took Friday off from work and used the morning to visit the Greenmarket. The Friday market is less crowded than its Saturday incarnation, but there are also proportionately fewer vendors on hand. I strode briskly down the line, checking each and every table for the tell-tale turquoise containers, searching and searching until I spied some out of the corner of my eye.

There were about ten quarts of berries on the table, so I quickly swooped down and claimed two of them. My search over, I calmed down a bit and wandered back through the market, adding a pound of rhubarb and a bouquet of poppies to my haul for the morning.

Strawberries will obviously be far more plentiful next week, so there's no need to be precious about them. But to make my haul last until then, I decided to use most of this first batch to make a double batch of one my favorite springtime treats, strawberry-rhubarb compote.

I've already eaten it on ice cream, over greek yogurt (topped with a drizzle of honey) and, admittedly, straight from the jar. Yeah, I'm uncouth - deal.