When your Garden is Flush with Strawberries

downtonabbeycooks

4 years ago

Summer is my favourite time of year: not only is it a welcome change from a long cold winter but is the time when gardeners can see the efforts from their Spring plantings. The coronavirus lockdown has inspired a surge in gardening not seen since the second world war so many of you are starting to see the benefits of your labours.

Grand country homes like Downton Abbey had vast kitchen gardens to feed family and staff, as a quick trip to the market was quite impractical. My parents still maintain a large garden where I was first exposed to vegetable gardening growing up. If you live in a concrete jungle, container gardening is an option to grow some easy to grow favourites like herbs, strawberries or cherry tomatoes. Fellow suburbanites can claim a little patch of the backyard to join the grow your own movement.

My mom has always grown strawberries, a tradition I have carried with me since I left home. They grow in containers so I have been able to grow on small patios over the years. I now have a dedicated patch in my little backyard garden.

This week the berries are turning red so quickly that I have to check for ripe berries twice a day to keep ahead of the critters. I don’t always get to them in time, but bunnies got to eat too.

If you don’t have your own garden you can still enjoy fresh local produce from farmers’ markets or your local grocery store. You will notice that the locally grown berries don’t have the thick skins which help them travel over long distances.

While you can easily enjoy them with cream or as toppings on ice cream, or to decorate your cakes, there are a number of recipes that are brought to life by these lovely berries.

Try these Recipes

Here is a list of my favourite recipes:

Breakfast

Jams

Desserts

Drinks

Cool and Refreshing Pimm’s Punch