Valley Bounty: June 28, 2014: Strawberries
Finally! After a long spring and a wet start, recent good weather has brought a bounty of strawberries, now full of sweet sunshine. Pick-your-own fields are open across the Valley. Most places plant different successions for early, mid, and late season berries, and many fields will be open for picking into July. But make sure you stock up! Strawberry season truly is short, so now is the time for freezing, drying and canning. Find u-pick farms, recipes and preservation tips on the Valley Bounty page at www.buylocalfood.org.
Valley Bounty is written by Abby Getman of Community Involved in Sustaining Agriculture (CISA).
Extras:
Farms with PYO Strawberries can be found here.
Places to buy strawberries can be found here. Don’t have time to pick your own? Many local farms that sell strawberries will sell bulk amounts of 1 flat and up at a slightly discounted price for pickup if you contact them ahead of time (give at least 2 days notice, depending on the farm). Call or email farms or farm stands from the link above to see if that could be an option for you.
Recipes:
Red Fire Farm’s Cold Strawberry Soup is a refreshing course in your summer meal, or an easy and delicious mid-day snack!
Leslie Cerrier has a fun and gluten-free strawberry pancake recipe, paired well with yogurt topping.
Try Meaghan Thwigg Eastman’s Strawberry Balsamic Pizza with Arugula, Feta, and Basil.
Preservation Tips:
Freeze strawberries for use all season long! After picking, hull or leave whole and spread on a cookie sheet layered with wax paper and stick in the freezer for several hours. After thoroughly frozen, toss them into a zip-lock bag. Freezing them individually prevents chiseling out berries when you need them, but if you don’t have time for the first step, just be prepared to deal with a block of berries later on down the line.
Jam on! Many jam recipes are dependent on two things: water content and sugar content. This set of step by step instructions for strawberry rhubarb jam is easy to follow and is from our local pectin producer.
Drying strawberries is an easy way to keep them in your cupboard (or for longer storage, the freezer) check out the Happy Valley Locavore’s instructions here.
