Picking Local, Fresh Strawberries

Strawberries. Need I say more? I’m going to …

U-Pick Strawberry Farms

Every spring, we go pick strawberries at the local berry farm. When my husband and I lived in North Carolina, it was Lewis Farms. Here in Minnesota, it’s Schumacher’s Nursery & Berry Farm. Wherever you live, if it’s somewhere that strawberries are able to grow, I bet you have a u-pick farm not far from you!

 

I had seen on the Schumacher’s Farm Facebook page that the berries were large and delicious NOW, so my friend Michele and I decided it was time to go. It was a little cloudy, but not too hot and it didn’t rain on us, so we called it a good day!

In Minnesota, we have the Minnesota Grown directory, where you can type your zip code in to find farms near you (strawberries or otherwise.) Schumacher’s Nursery & Berry Farm is the closest to me in Southwest Minnesota, and we always have a great experience when we visit.

 

Schumacher’s Nursery & Berry Farm

At Schumacher’s, they have a really organized process that makes everything go really quickly – even when they are busy. You show up at the farm with your own containers and go to the weighing station to get your containers weighed.  You are given a number that gets written on a receipt with your name and on your hand. This year, I was number B-66.

Then, you get on a flatbed trailer pulled by a tractor (which is cool in itself) with all of the other strawberry pickers and the tractor takes you out to the field.  From there, employees show you which row to pick.  You go down your assigned row until you have picked all the berries you want (in my case it’s usually 20 pounds.)  Then, the tractor picks you back up to take you back in so they can weigh your harvest, subtract the weight of your containers, and you pay. My 20 pounds of berries cost me just under $40 – for delicious, ripe, Minnesota-grown strawberries. You can’t beat that!

They also usually have 10-pound flats available for sale that they have already picked, so if someone doesn’t want to go out and have the full picking experience, they can just buy them. I don’t know what the cost difference is on these – I always just go pick my own because it’s fun. It’s something to do, as my Grandpa says.

One other thing they do is give you a card to take home that includes their favorite strawberry recipes. I’m not sharing a picture of that here – if you want their recipes you’ll have to go pick some of their strawberries. If you don’t live near here, don’t worry – I’m sharing a few of my favorite recipes below!

Cleaning and Processing Your Strawberries

Washing your strawberries when you get them home is really important. If you are going to leave them fresh in your refrigerator, it’s recommended to wait and wash them before eating to preserve freshness. I freeze most of mine, so I go ahead and wash them all and prep them for the freezer.

 

 

I used to wash my fruit with a vinegar-water solution, but I recently read about a baking soda and water solution actually being more effective at removing any potential pesticides and other things. So, I used two dishpans in my kitchen sink put 2-3 tablespoons of baking soda in a bit of water, and let it dissolve, I added my berries and more water, and then let them soak for 15 minutes.

There was a lot of rain in our area yesterday, and since strawberries grow low to the ground, today when I picked they had some extra dirt on them.  When I drained the initial baking soda wash from my berries, the water was actually kind of dirty – so today I did a second bath after I was done cleaning the tops off them.

To core the tops out of my strawberries, I use this handy Pampered Chef Chef’s Corer – it says it’s for tomatoes, which it does work well for, but it is AMAZING for cleaning strawberries.

 

 

Strawberry Top Shrub

I read recently that you can take the tops of your strawberries that you usually compost, and make a shrub out of them. What the heck is a shrub? It’s a fruit and sugar syrup that you mix into vinegar, and drink.  I made one a couple of years ago out of raspberries and rhubarb. They are really good for you, but unfortunately, I didn’t really care for them.

But, I’m trying this “turn strawberry tops into a shrub” thing, in the plight of a no-waste kitchen.  Today, I took all of my strawberry tops and mixed them in a bowl with an equal amount of sugar, and put them into a jar. Apparently, it will sit in a jar in the refrigerator for a few days, and then I’ll add vinegar to it and strain the liquid out of the stems – and that will be my shrub. I use Zulka pure cane sugar for everything in my kitchen, and I will use white wine vinegar for the vinegar part of this concoction. Will see! If you follow me on Facebook, I’ll try to do a follow-up there next week as to how this shrub turns out.

Aside from that, I took the hulled and cleaned berries and froze them in four-gallon-size freezer bags. We will use our strawberries throughout the year for various things.  I also left a large bowl out for us to eat fresh.

 

Our Favorite Ways to Enjoy Strawberries

Preserves
A good chunk of our strawberries will end up being jam, as I have time to process them. Here are some of the things I’ve preserved recently, using last year’s frozen strawberries:

• • Strawberry-Rhubarb Jam from Pomona’s Universal Pectin
  • Strawberry-Cherry Jam (using the Pomona’s Pectin recipe for Strawberry Jam)
  • Strawberry-Rhubarb Hot Sauce from the Preservation Pantry cookbook
  • Strawberry Balsamic Jam from Food in Jars

Smoothies
We like to make smoothies, and one way I’ve found to save time in the morning is to make Smoothie Freezer Packs. The fruit and yogurt for a smoothie-for-two all go into a quart-size freezer bag, which can be quickly defrosted enough to put in the blender with some milk and juice. Bam – an almost instant smoothie for those of us who don’t get up any earlier than needed in the morning.

Dinner
I love this Spinach & Strawberry Salad! We like to add chicken breast to it, too.

Dessert
One of my favorite healthier-for-you desserts that also allows me to use jam from my pantry is this Skinnytaste Strawberry Swirl Cheesecake.

I’ve also put together two recipes for you below – my mom’s Fresh Strawberry Pie, and my mother-in-law’s Strawberry Shortcake. They have both given me unlimited permission to share their recipes as I see fit – thanks, ladies! 

Well, there you have it. Tour de Strawberry, courtesy of the annual trip to Schumacher’s Nursery & Berry Farm. Thanks for another delicious and fun visit!