Today, we decided to get out and go pick strawberries with the kids.
It was a beautiful 60 degrees and no one was at the farm we went to. We had our pick of the whole farm! In case you didn’t know, you have about until the end of May for strawberry season, then you have blackberries and in mid-June blueberries start!
We ended up getting 5 quarts and paid about $2/quart. According to all the talk on my Facebook post about it, that is a pretty good price. Plus we like to try and support the local farmers who are doing it right! I prefer to purchase locally, but especially get produce that has not been sprayed with pesticides and chemicals.
I ordered my Sucanat and Turbinado from Amazon a few days ago, so I just got enough to eat and freeze a little for now. (Be sure to read my guest post by Calie on Natural Sugar Substitutes.) Then once my natural sugars come in, I’ll go get more to make things like Strawberry Freezer Jam.
Now, I need your help! Do you have any great recipes or ideas on how to use my abundance of strawberries? Please leave me your ideas in the comments and share your recipes.
What farm did you go to pick the strawberries? I live in Nashville and would like to take my children as well!
Martha – We went in Nolensville to Andrews Farm, but you can checkout my Pick Your Own Produce at Local Farms post on my Nashville Provisions page. I have all the scoop there!
We’ve recently gone, too!
I made strawberry pie. Here’s where I posted the recipe!
http://www.reallyareyouserious.com/2010/05/mouthwatering-monday-strawberry-pie.html
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I take my fresh strawberries and puree them without any added sweeteners or anything. When the whole batch is pureed I take clean ice cube trays and put about a half a cube’s worth of strawberries in each cube then freeze. When all are frozen I pop the mini cubes out and put them into a freezer bag. I do this with batches of all fresh fruits and frozen fruits I’ve thawed and fruit that is about to go bad. I keep each different fruit in a separate freezer bag. Every day we have the widest variety of choices for smoothies you have ever seen. And I never seem to run out when I do this.
In case you want my recipe for a smoothie here is a few versions:
five strawberry cubes
five pineapple cubes or mango cubes
1/2 c vanilla yogurt
2 oz of pure pomegranate juice, acai juice, reservitol or goji juice
1/2 banana
If you have a popsicle tray you can make homemade fruit-sicles. I just puree strawberries and mix with a little fruit juice or milk/cream then freeze. The kids LOVE them.
I also love to make chop it and make a fruit salad with just a sprinkle of sugar on top.
You can also puree it and mix in a cornstarch slurry to thicken it up then use it in turnovers, home made poptarts, or swirled in cake or cookie batter.
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Love the fruit-sicle idea! Thanks for sharing!
~Liz
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I love the strawberry spinach salad – great for summer and you can put chicken on it and make it a light meal…
http://allrecipes.com/recipe/spinach-and-strawberry-salad/detail.aspx
Smoothies!
You can whip them up so quickly, I can get my kids to have the most delicious ones every morning before they get on the bus to school.
And then you can mix them with vanilla ice cream for strawberry milkshakes after supper!
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LOTS OF STUFF! When strawberry season was here last year, I had a whole menu planned around the season. I made:
Strawberry Coffee Cake with crumb streusel
Herb salad with grilled balsamic salmon and strawberries and walnuts
Lemonade with strawberry ice cubes (it looks so petty when the strawberry cubes start melting into the lemonade!)
Strawberry glazed Pork Chops
And Strawberry Cupcakes!!!!
You can google all these recipes I bet.
Here is my Strawberry Layer Cake
http://hoosierhomemade.com/fresh-strawberry-layer-cakeguest-post/
We love strawberries! Ours aren’t ripe yet, here in NW Indiana, but I plan on picking when they are!
.-= Liz@HoosierHomemade´s last blog ..Chicken Phillies with Tyson Grilled & Ready Chicken =-.