April showers bring May chocolate chips and strawberries. Every May, people across the country grow excited for two reasons: National Chocolate Chip Day (May 15) and National Strawberry Month.

In order to celebrate the chocolate chip, it is important to know its origin.

Dietician and food lecturer Ruth Wakefield, who was locally known for her desserts at her Toll House Inn in Whitman, MA, accidentally created the chocolate chip at the Inn in 1933. While making a chocolate butter cookie, Wakefield ran out of baking chocolate and substituted it with chopped pieces of a Nestlé chocolate bar, expecting the chocolate pieces to melt in the dough while the cookies baked.

However, instead of spreading into the cookies, the chocolate chips remained intact and dotted the golden brown cookies. When these “Toll House Crunch Cookies,” now called “chocolate chip cookies,” became locally popular, sales of Nestlé chocolate bars increased in the area. Nestlé decided to provide for easy cutting on its chocolate bars, print Wakefield’s recipe on the label of every chocolate bar and give Wakefield a lifetime supply of Nestlé chocolate.

In 1939, Nestlé created the commonly known “chocolate chip” by shaping the chocolate to allow easier baking of the chocolate chip cookie.

In addition to celebrating chocolate chips on May 15, May is also the national month for nature’s candy, strawberries.

According to a 2010 Med Guru article, a site for health information, organic strawberries are high in antioxidants, vitamin C and total phenolics, which are essential nutrients needed for healthy bodies. Also, higher levels of beneficial nutrients like zinc, boron, sodium and iron are present in the soil where organic strawberries are grown.

Strawberry picking season is from mid-May to early June. A fun activity during this season is picking strawberries in one of Montgomery County’s three strawberry farms: Butler’s Orchard in Germantown, Homestead Farm in Poolesville and Rock Hill Orchard in Mt. Airy.

Strawberries are a perfect match with chocolate chips, as they add a healthy touch to the sweet chocolatey delights. Here are two easy recipes to celebrate May that include strawberries and chocolate chips.