Adventures in Strawberry Picking

Last weekend as part of our “Father’s Day Weekend 2016,” our 2 and 4 year old decided that we needed to surprise Daddy and take him strawberry picking.  I’m guessing that the golf outing and lunch at The Lucky Monk were the better surprises in daddy’s book, but he was a trooper and enjoyed his afternoon wandering the strawberry fields nonetheless.

We tried out a new farm this year up in Marengo called Cody’s Farm & Orchard – it was a quaint family farm, very low key and relaxed.  I would definitely recommend this cute little place!  We just grabbed a wagon and walked to the fields and started picking.  At first we weren’t sure we would even fill up 2 quarts, but then we hit a good patch and found ourselves with an abundance of berries in our wagon.  Ten pounds of strawberries later, a visit with the goats and cows and we were ready to head home to enjoy!

Washing Berries:

Once you get home with your beautiful berries you will need to wash them right away. I use the bowl and strainer from my salad spinner, but any large bowl and strainer will work.  I fill the bowl with cold water and add in 1/2 cup of white vinegar before giving my berries a bath.

 

Why vinegar? Good question!  The vinegar helps to wash the berries, but also kills any mold spores that may be on the berries.  This keeps your berries fresher longer and prevents them from molding.

Next drain the berries on clean kitchen towels. I line baking sheets with towels to help contain the berries.  You want to get most of the moisture off of them, so you can let them sit out for 5-10 minutes before storing.  Also depending on how many berries you have you may have to repeat this process several times – I did 4 wash sessions!

At this point your options are limitless – bake a pie, make homemade jam, or just start popping these little ruby jewels in your mouth!  Since we had sooo many berries, I opted to keep some fresh, freeze some, and make topping for strawberry shortcake with the rest.

Fresh Berry Preparation:

To keep fresh berries – I pick out the biggest and best berries to keep in the refrigerator.  After the berries dry, line the bottom of an open top container with paper towel and gently stack the berries.  Into the produce drawer they go – fresh berries will keep for up to a week, but I’m not sure they will last that long at my house!

Frozen Berry Preparation:

With the remaining berries – I pick out the “next best” berries to freeze. I’ve heard of hulling the berries or using a straw to remove the stem, but I’m going to be honest here – that sounds way too time consuming to me. I just use a pairing knife and cut off the tops. If using a huller or straw is more your style – rock on, my friend 😉

Once you have stemless berries, place them on a parchment lined baking sheet to freeze.  Make sure the berries are not touching – you are individually freezing the berries so that they don’t all clump together in a bag.

 

Here is my freezer doing it’s job freezing my little beauties!

After a few hours remove the berries and place into ziploc freezer bags and just like that you have individually frozen berries!

Berry Topping Preparation:

With the last of the berries I make strawberry topping for short cake, ice cream or yogurt!  The berries left at the end will be the least pretty berries – some bruised, some oddly shaped – regardless they are still super delicious and packed with flavor. Just remove the stems, slice and add to a large bowl.  I use the ratio 1 cup berries to 1 Tablespoon sugar.  You can play around with this ratio, however I find this to be sweet enough, yet I can still taste the natural tartness of the berries -just perfect!

Mix in the sugar and set the bowl in the refrigerator for 3-4 hours and let the maceration magic happen!  When a fruit macerates it softens and releases it’s natural juices. So, when you come back to check your berries, you will find them bathing in a sweet saucy juice, just like the picture below.

You can store this topping in an airtight container for up to 5 days, or you can freeze it for 2 months.  We made strawberry shortcakes with ours – they were delish!  If I hadn’t picked and prepped 10 pounds of strawberries, I probably would have made homemade pound cake and fresh whipped cream – but I was a tired mama and wanted to hang out with my family, so I ran to the store and picked up a pound cake and cool whip to make some super quick short cakes.

My little family sat on our deck as the sun set on our berry picking day and we dug into our desserts.  I may be biased, but being a part of the harvesting process made my treat taste that much sweeter 🙂

I hope you get a chance to go berry picking this summer and use my tips to help keep your berries fresh and fabulous!