My mother's family are dairy farmers in northern Wisconsin.
I spent summers on the farm and we ate blackberry cobblers with a big scoop of ice cream of course.

Grandma and the aunts did not make strawberry cobbler.

Instead they made drop biscuits and served them with sliced and sugared strawberries poured
over the top of the biscuit. And of course a big scoop or two of ice cream.

My uncle always told us that in the state of Wisconsin it was against the law
to eat any dessert without a big scoop of ice cream. We believed him
and always followed the law.

He also said it was the law, that when eating apple pie you had to eat a slice
of cheddar cheese.

We believed him because there were a lot of funny laws in Wisconsin about dairy products.

For a long time margarine was illegal and Wisconsin residents had to go to Iowa and bootleg
margarine if they wanted to eat it.

Then when Wisconsin finally made margarine legal, it was illegal to color it.
They had to buy these little yellow die buttons to color it.
Otherwise it was pure white and looked very unappetizing.

is like a kiss without the squeeze!'

My high school best friend's father recited it OFTEN!!!

And they set the tone for the state legislators.

The state protects the dairy farmers, dairy processing plants, and dairy products.

Dairy products are serious business.

However, I think the dairy lobby is not as powerful as it once was.

Makes sense.

Ice cream time is approaching!

Of course in Wisconsin they used to eat ice cream all year round.
A short drive to the dairy processing plants to pick up huge containers
of fresh ice cream, made with cream right from the nearby dairy farms.

Going to the dairies to buy large buckets of ice cream.

My Mom didn't like the biscuits sweetened, but we put sugar on the fresh strawberries. And whipped cream on top. My husband's family liked the biscuits sweetened, and the berries, too. My mother-in-law would pour milk over hers, the way her family served it. A couple of her kids joked with her about it, but she wouldn't give it up. For awhile, I really liked using the little sponge cups and putting fresh berries over it, and whipped cream.

So many good memories. So much of the food we got was seasonal. Shipping produce from California and Florida was growing up the same time I was. Most of the time, we ate the fruit we got, washed and with our hands. Summertime with peaches, plums, watermelon. And we were always sent outside to eat the fruit! lol

We had wild blackberries at the old place, too. I made cobblers from them, but everyone liked the black raspberry cobbler better. I made blackberry jam every year, so good.

And yes sugar on the cut strawberries to scoop on top of the biscuit.

Yes the food was seasonal. We ate what the garden and land produced.

And yes watermelon had to be eaten outside!

Watermelon never made it into the house.
Grandpa would buy us a watermelon and put it in his minnow tank to cool.
Water there from the underground spring and it was cold.

Oh I think blackberries are much better than raspberries.
But Grandma made cobblers with both of them.

To this day I will buy blackberries and just eat them plain.
With a touch of sugar. Just like when we were kids.

Was from northern Wisconsin and she told me that margarine was illegal and you had to smuggle it in from Illinois. Sounded gross to me, she said that you had to add the coloring and for a while it was pink. I know that part is true because I have some old cookbooks that have pictures of pink margarine.

The dairy state, after all. I was raised on margarine but I only use butter since I left home.

Maybe some went to Chicago, I didn't hear about that.

Yes I remember the dye to color the margarine.
It was very gross.
I wouldn't eat it.

when I was young and 'creative.'

I have a bunch of old recipe books and tweaked a recipe for crisp. My mother-in-law made peach upside cake. That was another favorite.

Or a mixed berry pie with perhaps cherries and blueberries.

I think a strawberry rhubarb cobbler would be excellent.

Strawberries are often not cooked in many desserts (like strawberry shortcake), or glazed (fresh strawberry pie or garnish for tres leches cake, etc.).

You can make whatever you want. I often make lots of substitutes when cooking. Many turn out better than the original recipe.

but not easy to find; great bakery in town where I grew up made a GREAT one!!!

I made strawberry rhubarb pie a couple of times, and my Mom and Gram loved it. I also made elderberry pie. They loved it, but the rest of us weren't crazy about it.

I think I will try baking a cobbler with pure strawberries and maybe some thickener. A couple years ago, I made a strawberry cake. My neighbor brought me a piece from a cake she baked. I'd never hear of that either, but it was so good, I wanted to make one to share with my family. Basically a white cake, light texture, moist.

Thank you for the tips

I think strawberries are just too strong to not be cut with some other fruit. Or cream as in strawberry shortcake.

My mom and grandmother used to make this. Now I kind of want to make some. I don't even know where I can get rhubarb around here.

cold (or room temp) with a yellow cake and whipped cream, or in a strawberry jell pie with traditional piecrust and topped with whipped cream, or on an old-fashioned sweetened biscuit type shortcake with whipped cream.

Delicious!

So good! I had some leftover fresh pineapple so I added that. Adding strawberries would be great too!
4 cups diced rhubarb
1/2 cup sugar
1 sm pk strawberry jello (powder)
1 box yellow cake mix
1 stick melted butter
1 cup water

Layer in a 9x12 pan in the order given. Try to cover as much cake mix as you can with the butter and water. Bake at 350 for 40-45 min.

which happily coincided with the peak of Western New York strawberry season (he didn't like cakes, possible because his job entailed baking cakes from mixes and making sure their contents matched what was printed on the boxes). I remember it had a bottom crust, and some sort of glaze, but don't remember it the strawberries were cooked or not. So sort of an upside-down cobbler

Baked crust, fresh strawberries in a colored, sweetened glaze. I made those a couple of times at home. Very easy to either bake a crust, or get frozen crust and bake. You could buy the glaze (cornstarch, water, coloring, maybe sugar) at the grocery store. Coat the berries with the glaze and fill the crust. Topped with whipped cream. Really good!