When I was a little girl I remember not really liking strawberries–they always seemed tart–but I was so not wanting to miss out that I would swallow them whole rather than give them to my brothers who obviously loved them.
I am a bit more mature about my response to food now and having tasted some divine examples of strawberry sweetness, I do know that good strawberries exist.
The sweet, hard-to-describe floral, candy perfume of ripe flavour-filled strawberries is intoxicating, and when that wafts through the market stall, they sell themselves.
When in season and 500g punnets selling for $2, resistance is futile.
My boys have been known to buy a punnet each and slurp their way around the market with juice stained fingers and sweet smelling breath.

The strawberry is, in technical terms, an aggregate accessory fruit, meaning that the fleshy part is derived not from the plant’s ovaries but from the receptacle that holds the ovaries. Each apparent “seed” (achene) on the outside of the fruit is actually one of the ovaries of the flower, with a seed inside it. In both culinary and botanical terms, the entire structure is considered a fruit (Wikipedia).
There are  about 9 varieties of strawberries grown in Australia, and I really don’t know the scientific differences. My nose, eyes and taste buds help me choose.

So that is some of the technical stuff.
The initial obvious employment of strawberries is to satisfy the sweets compartment–strawberries and cream, strawberry jam, in fruit salad, on pavlova, strawberry ice cream, in a smoothie or milkshake, strawberry and champagne (sparkling wine) jelly, tarts, mousses, cheese cakes…
But how about strawberry and duck risotto; strawberry, feta and rocket salad; strawberry relish glazed pork belly; strawberry and balsamic vinegar salad dressing…and something I have been toying with for a while-Strawberry,balsamic and pepper sorbet:
Ing:
500g strawberries, hulled
1/3 cup balsamic vinegar
1 1/2 tsp ground black pepper
1 cup caster sugar
1 1/2 cups water
1 egg white, beaten until soft peaks

Method:
Dissolve sugar in water and bring to the boil.
Remove from heat and cool.
Puree strawberries with vinegar and mix in pepper.
Mix syrup in with puree. Fold in egg white.
Pour into icecream machine and churn according to instructions. Decant into plastic container and freeze.

Zingy and refreshing. Maybe could do with even more pepper. Or maybe not!