Picking Strawberries

The fruit cage is chocablock with berries and other fruit.  At the moment the strawberries are taking centre stage but the raspberries and cherries are not far behind.

So back to the good old strawberries – we are lucky that the variety we have is really sweet. They were given to my father-in-law by his father-in-law, and are called Cambridge No. 7s. Not as big as most common varieties, but much much sweeter. The lovely thing about the strawberries being ours is that we can pick just the ripest ones, to eat that day. And come back the next day to pick more. It means that when you sit down to eat, the berries are still warm. So much nicer than the old days when we were stuck with whatever you could buy from the supermarket, which would be days old by the time we got them. Can you hear me gloating?

It is such fun letting the girls go wild in the fruit cage. Their little baskets are meant to be filled with fruits and somehow very few fruit ever make it in. Instead they come out with satisfied smiles and stained mouths, hands and clothes. Tip moment here – to get strawberry stains out of clothes slowly pour boiled water over the stain till it washes out.

Not only that we also have some wild alpine strawberries that the girls also picking. Whenever there is 10 mins of absolute peace and quiet you know that they are sitting in the alpine strawberry patch thoroughly shifting through the leaves to find the miniscule but extremely sweet berries.

Actually at the moment we are we can’t keep up with the strawberries as they are ripening so fast. I have been making lots of this strawberry and caramelised onion salad as well as strawberry lemonade, fruit salad and some strawberry basil ice cream. We have had friends over to for berry picking parties and still have lots so I am resorting to freezing the berries for breakfast smoothies and this weekend is earmarked for making strawberry jam.

 These strawberries and raspberries in this picture are going to be eaten just as they are – no recipe needed. Their red juicy sweetness just says it all.