Strawberries are pretty easy to preserve as well. You can simply remove the green top, rinse them off, then freeze the berries whole in a single layer on a cookie sheet lined with a tea towel. When the berries are frozen, put them in a freezer bag. Strawberries are also great to turn into jam or make a sauce that can be canned and used for pancakes, desserts, etc.
The best way to eat a strawberry is while standing in the patch with the sun overhead and a gentle breeze blowing across your face. While I hope you have the chance to do this, the second best option is to eat locally grown berries in season. The most basic thing to do with a strawberry is to take the green top off and pop it in your mouth. Simple. There are a lot of other things you can do with strawberries as well. Sliced berries are a great topper for a bowl of cereal, ice cream, pancakes, waffles, or added to a spinach salad. You can also preserve them to eat later in the year in the form of frozen berries, strawberry jam or syrup. Other popular ways to enjoy strawberries include strawberry shortcake, pie, or chocolate covered berries!
Strawberries pair well with other fruits including a variety of berries, rhubarb, mangoes and bananas. You can mix strawberries with a variety of these other fruits to make tasty smoothies, juice drinks, desserts, fruit salads or fresh fruit salsas to top off grilled chicken or fish. Strawberries can also be included in more savory preparations including salads, sauces and vinaigrettes. They go great with cheeses such as ricotta or mascarpone. Strawberries also pair well with the spice of peppercorns and the acidity of vinegars such as balsamic vinegar. You can use strawberries to garnish a fresh greens salad.
Growing Information: We only harvest off our strawberry field for 2 years before it is destroyed and we start a new field in a different location. Why do we do this when the field is still producing? Well, we like to keep our patch as clean as we can and free from perennial weeds. The older the patch, the greater the chance that weed seeds such as dandelion and thistle will make their way into the patch. This is also a means of controlling any leaf disease we may see on a variety. A young, clean patch will usually have greater production and yields.
Additional Fun Facts: We select the varieties based on their ripening season, flavor, color, disease resistance and production potential. Flavor is one of our most important characteristics and we typically only choose varieties that are rated as having “Excellent” flavor by Nourse Farms, the farm that produces our strawberry plants.
