Strawberry Recipes

It's strawberry season where I live in the Southern Tier of New York.  For a lazy, warm, Sunday, I'd like to share some strawberry recipes with you.

Here are some I've had on my blog in the past:

Chocolate covered strawberries 

Low sugar strawberry jam 

Strawberry topped angel food cake (from a mix) 

Today, I want to share with you an easy strawberry sauce you can drizzle onto pancakes,waffles or french toast.  It's a great way to use up overripe strawberries, and was taught to me by my late childhood best friend when we had our last quality visit together in July of 2013.

We bought a quart of local strawberries at the farmer's market yesterday, and had some strawberries in the fridge that were a bit old (but still edible) so decided to make this sauce.

Strawberry Sauce

Strawberries

Small amount of maple syrup (ideally, real maple syrup and not "pancake syrup").

Method

 

Mash the softened berries.  Add the maple syrup.  Cook under low heat until they are as sauce like as you want.  

These come out chunky so you can mash further if you want smooth.

 

Speaking of strawberry topped angel food cake, this is what we had for dessert last night.  We use a Betty Crocker mix (no compensation for this mention) because it is a one step mix. It's easy, and it can be made in a 9 x 13 inch pan (I don't have a tube pan) with a minor adjustment in the amount of water and how you beat the mix.

 

What is your favorite strawberry recipe?

 

Strawberry Onions #WordlessWednesday

I know what you're asking (except, maybe, if you live, or have lived, in Florida).  What is a strawberry onion?

I was introduced to strawberry onions in March of 2013, when spouse and I visited a Florida farmers market in Tampa and discovered them.

We were leaving Florida to drive home to New York State and bought two of the onions.  After we got home and tried them,  I said something like "If I knew how good they tasted, I would have bought up the vendor's entire stock." It was the end of the season, too.  We lucked into them.

No, Strawberry Onions are not a cross between strawberries and onions. Nor do they taste like strawberries.  Rather, they are a mild variety of onion.  They grow in strawberry fields in the Plant City, Florida area, which is a major strawberry producing area. (Plant City is in the same county as Tampa).

At one time, strawberry farmers believed that planting these onions on the perimeter of the field would ward off insects.  That isn't true, alas, but the practice continues.

They don't get their taste from their strawberry neighbors, but they thrive on the water and fertilizer given to the strawberry plants.  They used to be grown at the perimeter of the strawberry fields but production is growing, thanks to a growing demand.

Some call them Florida's best kept secret. 

In 2020, we discovered we could mail order them, and did.  We have mail ordered them every year since.  The harvest begins in early February and stretches into mid to late March, depending.

You can get them at Parksdale Market in Plant City (I highly recommend their strawberry shortcake, by the way.  They are not cheap to mail order but it's a splurge.   

So mild.  Someone I know who is a produce expert thinks they are of the same variety as the famous Vidalia onions, which have their own distinct character because of the short days and the special soil where they are grown in Georgia.  Well, call this Florida's version.

This will give you a hint of their size.  It wasn't the biggest onion in the box, either.

And no, I'm not being paid to publicize their onions.  

 

Joining Sandee (if she will have me with my onion scented blog today) at her #WordlessWednesday.

Strawberry Topped Angel Food Cake #WordlessWednesday

Our local strawberry season is winding up where I live in New York State.  I wouldn't be surprised if our heat wave (97F today, 36C) hastens that.  I can't complain - that privilege is reserved for those in our Pacific Northwest. They've been struggling with temperatures upwards of 117F (47C) recently.

So today, I wanted to feature something cool and refreshing.

Because I'm a Weight Watchers lifetime member, I try to stay away from fattening desserts.  This one is so simple and you can modify it however you want.

This is all you need:  slices of angel food cake (I made mine using a cake mix, right before the heat hit), sliced strawberries, and some whipped cream  (I use aerosol light whipped cream.). So simple, and no cooking needed.  Of course, you can use shortcake if you want. 

Take the slice of angel food cake. Heap sliced strawberries on it. (I don't sweeten them in any way).  Top with aerosol (or homemade) whipped cream.

If you want an easy Canada Day (tomorrow) dessert, I could easily see a drizzle of maple syrup on this.  If you want something for the United States' Independence Day (July 4) one could add a simple blueberry sauce, which we use for breakfast on the weekend: frozen blueberries, a little liquid, cooked briefly with some real maple syrup.  It's so good, and you could drizzle it over the cake and strawberries before you add the whipped cream. 

 

Joining Sandee at Comedy Plus for her #WordlessWednesday.

Music Monday - Strawberry Letters and Musical Alarm Clocks

It's strawberry season in upstate New York.

I started to think about music, something that becomes a refuge when news is bad.  This has been a month full of tragic news for many.  It's time to enjoy a few minutes of lightness among all the grim moments this month has brought.  Today, I'd like to bring you several favorite songs featuring strawberries.

Strawberry Letter 23 as done by The Brothers Johnson.  I can not tell you for how many years I thought the title of this song was "Strawberry Letter 22". Ig you listen to the lyrics (I guess I didn't - I am so swept away by the the instrumental in this song) the song is about a young man singing about a love letter he has received - Strawberry Letter 22.  He is either responding or hoping for a 23rd letter.  I'm still not sure.

So why the strawberry letters?  Were they written on red paper?  Did his lover scent them with strawberries?  I love the lyrics, but they don't give me a clue.

Nor did I ever know this was actually a cover of a song by Shuggie Otis.  I won't do a battle of the bands here, but you can decide which version you like better. Mr. Otis is still performing and touring.

Strawberry Fields Forever by the Beatles - you won't find a complete version (legally) on You Tube, I suspect, but this will give you part of it.  And the video isn't bad, either.

Incense and Peppermints by the Strawberry Alarm Clock.

Are you wondering why you keep seeing Music Mondays after I had given up this feature?  I had decided there were so many blog posts with music challenges, Battles of the Bands, and so forth, that we didn't need one more.  But now I've decided I was having too much fun.  I may not do it every Monday, but if the mood hits, I will do it.

And a happy strawberry day to you, too.

Sustainable Saturday - Strawberry Fields Forever

Don't these strawberries look luscious?

They aren't just any strawberries.  These are cutting edge strawberries, grown in a special way that may become more mainstream one day.

We picked those on Wednesday - fresh, at a farm in upstate New York about 30 miles from Syracuse, New York, where (for "normal" strawberries, the season would have been over in late June).

These strawberries are not your normal strawberries.  They were grown, outdoors, hydroponically, on a U Pick farm near Skaneateles, New York called Strawberry Fields.

These are grown in vertical towers.  They are everbearing strawberries, which bloom throughout the season.  The berries we saw had both flowers, small berries, and ripe berries, all on the same plant.

The berries are not officially organic, but are grown as naturally as possible.

Each tower has a number of pockets, each of which contains a strawberry plant planted in a non-soil planting medium.  The ground around the plants is covered so you are never walking in mud.  Even someone with a back problem, such as me, can pick these with no problem.

Each visitor to Strawberry Fields is given a basket, lined with a plastic bag, with a pair of scissors at the bottom.  You snip the stem and gently place each berry in the basket.

You pick as many as you want, and pay by the pound.

How you use the berries are up to you. I eat them plain (no sugar, no cream - even before Weight Watchers, I loved my berries in the natural way) but you are welcome to use them in recipes.

These berries are grown as annuals, since, basically, they are grown in containers, and probably wouldn't overwinter in our northern climate.

And the best part?  The "small world" factor.  We visited this farm twice on a recent visit to Skaneateles.  The first time, we were helped by a young lady.  The second time, we were helped by her mother, and found that the young lady of the day before goes to college where we live, and lives just a couple of miles from us.

That's why I love travel.  Even if you don't travel far (and this was less than 100 miles from where we live), you can experience something brand new.

Have you ever eaten hydroponically grown fruit?