When I was growing up, I had little notion that fruits and vegetables had seasons. I knew that we would stop by the roadside stands to buy corn in mid-summer, but we also ate corn during the middle of winter courtesy of the frozen food and canned goods aisles. To make matters worse, I could never tell the difference between fresh and store bought corn because my parents would boil the corn until it lost most of its color and freshness. We would eat apples and grapes year round; oranges and bananas were always in abundance, so the concept of seasonal produce never crossed my mind. But, now that I am older and I hope wiser, I have come to understand the seasonality of food. And now, like my wardrobe, I change out the food I eat with the seasons. Gone now, along with my heavy sweaters, are the flavor intense brussell sprouts and root vegetables. In, along with espadrilles and capris, are the light and sweet flavors of spring. Asparagus, Greens, Artichokes, and my ultimate favorite: Strawberries.
There is no better time to buy strawberries than now. Big, red, ripe, and fragrant strawberries are everywhere. When they say: "your nose knows", they were talking about spring strawberries. Right now, you could walk into a market blindfolded and follow your nose to the strawberries. Try doing that in December and you will probably end up in the candy section. This is the time to consume strawberries. This is when they are not only the most delicious, but the most affordable. Use them in salads with goat cheese, pies loaded with fresh whipped cream, or simply as a topping to your cottage cheese. I can overload myself with strawberries, but with that comes the anxiety. The freshest strawberries don’t last. They start to turn brown, mushy and moldy almost overnight. Each hour you pass the strawberries sitting on the counter, you begin to worry that you can’t eat them fast enough. Not only is it a gastronomical concern, but a financial one. If you don’t get to them in time, you end up tossing out what could have been the best darn strawberry of your life, not to mention a few hard earned dollars!
Again, my Dad comes to the rescue to resolve my strawberry anxiety. His suggestion: “Why don’t you just make preserves?” Well, Dad, I guess I will. So for the last 2 years, every spring, I make a trip to Costco and buy slats of fresh strawberries, not only to eat them in their prime, but to also make preserves. And I can tell you, if you have never had fresh strawberry preserves, you don’t know what you are missing. Every time you open a jar, you get hit with their intense strawberry smell (which is something you can’t get from a store bought preserve). In addition, you have essentially bottled fresh strawberries for you to use year round.
Recipe 1:
Strawberry-Blueberry-Lemon Preserve. 6 ingredients and 30 minutes to make. If you have never canned before, check out our
canning article on making grape jelly. It outlines all of the tools you will need as well as the basic steps.
I admit, I cheat when I make preserves in that I sterilize my jars in the dishwasher and after filling each jar and tightening the lid (working quickly while the preserves are still molten hot),
I flip the hot the jars onto their tops to create the seal rather than boiling them in water.
This was a tip I learned from a great farming couple I met in Grand Junction and has been a time saver since. What works well for this recipe is the lemon zest and juice. It provides a great zing to the sweet strawberries and balances out the blueberry flavor. I add a teaspoon of olive oil to the preserves to minimize the foaming and I think it adds a certain velvety texture. The moment my Dad and I tasted our first batch, both of our eyes popped out of their sockets, it was that good.
Recipe 2 and 3:
Strawberry Shortcakes , as well as, a delicious and easy
Strawberry Ice Cream are recipes that could be made year round using the preserves as a basis. For both recipes, if you had to have strawberries outside of their season, the preserves would lend a sense of freshness and additional flavor to both dishes. For the shortcakes, I made a basic sweet lemon biscuit, cut fresh strawberries and let them macerate in the preserves. I then, topped each biscuit with the strawberry mixture and vanilla ice cream. Quick, easy, and delicious. For the ice cream, I made a basic 4 ingredient vanilla ice cream recipe. Once the ice cream was semi-firm, I swirled in the strawberry preserves so that you would get ribbons of strawberries swirled throughout. Warning: You have to be careful with the ice cream – it is easy to wolf down the semi-soft ice cream before it has a chance to set. Patience is key here.
Hopefully, you will be able to make these easy and delicious strawberry recipes. And remember, like our clothes, we should change out our food wardrobe and break out the spring fruits and veggies!
dGizmo