PICK STRAWBERRIES DAY
PICK STRAWBERRIES DAY
May 20th
Strawberry season in Southern California is year round, but the peak of the season with the best tasting strawberries available is mid to late Spring. That being said, it is probably not coincidental that the Strawberry Festival in Oxnard is taking place this weekend. Oxnard is the chief growing area in Southern California (at least in close proximity to the Los Angeles Basin) and their annual Strawberry Festival is happening, starting at 8:30 Saturday (May 19th) morning. The festival closes at 6 PM and will re-open on Sunday. There will be lots of booths featuring food made with Strawberries. There will of course, be other booths with crafts and different types of food.
If you want to go out and pick your strawberries there are many places available. Just travel north on the 101 and keep your eye out for produce stands once you get past Camarillo. If you prefer your strawberries already picked, you can pick and choose from several varieties that the various growers will have available. My favorite is the ‘Seascape’ which to me tastes the closest to the wild strawberries that I had in France a number of years ago. The wild variety that I had were much smaller than any that we get here, but boy were they tasty!
There are varieties of strawberries that are almost white in the middle and then there are those varieties that are red throughout. In my opinion, the sweetest berries are those that are completely red, inside and out. Some of the varieties that are available now are the Gaviota, Seascape, Camarosa, Ventana and Albion.
Strawberries are great just to eat out of hand, but they are also wonderful in desserts and as a breakfast food with dry or cooked cereal. Strawberries are used to make ice cream, milk shakes, pies, turnovers, jams and jellies, pancake syrup and everyone’s favorite, strawberry shortcake. A favorite at Valentine’s Day is to use the extra large strawberries with the stem still on to dip in melted chocolate.
For Breakfast try Strawberry Belgian Waffles. strawberry-belgian-waffles/
A great item for your Cheese Tray would be Strawberry Brie. Just bring the Brie to room temperature and cover with the Strawberry Sauce (Belgian Strawberry Waffle Recipe)
The recipe Strawberry Chantilly Cream strawberry-chantilly-crepe-filling/ may be used as a dessert or as a filling for crepes which would be good either for dessert or breakfast.
For the Crepe Shell Recipe see deserts/sweet-crepe-shells/
A good item for a ‘Do-It-Yourself Dessert Bar would be Chocolate Covered Strawberries. chocolate-covered-strawberries/
For a really scrumptious dessert try my Strawberry Marshmallow Cream Pie. But be prepared to take some time making this one! strawberry-marshmallow-cream-pie/
Go pick some strawberries today and try some of the recipes in this blog. Happy Strawberry Picking and/or Eating!
For more about strawberries please see my ezine article at http://ezinearticles.com/?Strawberries,-Springtime-Delight&id=6017170