The date square is an essential Canadian food item, right up there with the butter tart. I'm so glad to know that it is now infesting Oz; in my chauvinistic opinion, it's one of our better exports.

The thing about the date square (and the butter tart) is that it could be made in the dead of winter by people who did not own a refrigerator or a freezer, and could not afford fresh fruit out of season.

It's approaching the height of summer in Ontario, and I think we have reached surfeit with respect to strawberries and asparagus; my heart no longer leaps up, as it did in late May, when I see them at the market. Now, I'm longing for raspberries, corn and peaches.

I can't believe that I'm actually a wee bit tired of strawberries. That's just wrong.