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STRAWBERRIES.....mmmmmmmmmm

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Kiwithrottlejockey
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« on: November 11, 2009, 06:15:10 pm »


Tasty fruit worth the wait

Strawberries....mmmmmmmmm

Rodney Times | Tuesday, 10 November 2009

STRAWBERRY TIME: George Vezich is busy at his State Highway 16 strawberry farm.

STRAWBERRY TIME: George Vezich is busy at his State Highway 16 strawberry farm.

Strawberry lovers have had to wait to appease their tastes but the season is now getting into full swing.

A warm September offered the promise of an early start, but the coldest October in 64 years put paid to that.

Recent sun and higher temperatures are ensuring good crops of big, ripe fruit, averaging about two punnets for $5.

"They’re very popular right now," says Phil Greig of Greigs Strawberry Gardens in Kumeu. "We have just enough to meet demand."


Strawberry lovers have had to wait to appease their tastes but the season is now getting into full swing.

The cold snap impacted on growers down country, so many strawberries are going to fill the void. He employs up to 160 pickers in the mid-November peak season.

Weather permitting, Mr Greig expects plenty of quality strawberries around for Christmas.

The season ends about late January.

Further down State Highway 16 grower George Vezich agrees the seasons shaping up well after a slow start.


http://www.stuff.co.nz/auckland/local-news/rodney-times/3046107/Tasty-fruit-worth-the-wait
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Alicat
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« Reply #1 on: November 16, 2009, 06:28:44 pm »

I'm munching my way through a punnet of strawberries a day
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Magoo
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« Reply #2 on: November 17, 2009, 04:24:29 am »

Try hulling about two cups of strawberries and cut in half or quarters.
Sprinkle with 2 tablespoon of castor sugar ( confectioners sugar)
Sprinkle with 2 tablespoons of Balsamic vinegar.
Cover and refrigerate.
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« Reply #3 on: November 17, 2009, 06:42:57 am »

Try hulling about two cups of strawberries and cut in half or quarters.
Sprinkle with 2 tablespoon of castor sugar ( confectioners sugar)
Sprinkle with 2 tablespoons of Balsamic vinegar.
Cover and refrigerate.


 Shocked  balsamic vinegar??  Then what??  just eat or can ya add icecream???  Or is this something for over fish??
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OK, so what’s the speed of dark?


« Reply #4 on: November 17, 2009, 08:09:55 am »

Try hulling about two cups of strawberries and cut in half or quarters.
Sprinkle with 2 tablespoon of castor sugar ( confectioners sugar)
Sprinkle with 2 tablespoons of Balsamic vinegar.
Cover and refrigerate.


I agree Magoo they are divine....the balsamic vinegar brings all the flavour out.
You don't taste the vinegar just the enhanced strawberry flavour  and yes have with icecream.
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Magoo
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« Reply #5 on: November 17, 2009, 09:45:13 am »

This actually makes a wonderful posh desert for very little effort and looks stunning served on the table in a crystal bowl.    The vinegar brings out the colour in the strawberries and makes them look like rubies.      A scoop of ice cream and you have a desert fit for a king.
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« Reply #6 on: November 17, 2009, 07:50:00 pm »

I just pick and eat them.   Thats if the birds don't beat me to it.   Am surprised how sweet they are considering the weather. 
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« Reply #7 on: November 17, 2009, 08:23:48 pm »

Stopped at Windermere the other day and picked up a whole icecream container of berries for $6.  They said they were seconds because "some of them have little nicks" they looked good to me.

Then in the weekend picked up a couple of punnets from Countdown - Biggest damn strawberries I've seen.  I had to cut them in half!

Anyway - if you're happy enough to try balsamic on your berries - try cutting a strawberry in half and sprinkling with fresh ground black pepper!  YUMMO.  Brings out the flavour without overpowering it and gives the tiniest of zings!
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« Reply #8 on: November 17, 2009, 09:18:53 pm »

Summertime for us is buckets of strawberries - MrL loves summer berries but nothing else fruitwise.  The Lindemans Fraise champiss comes down in price - a couple of chopped up strawbs in a glass of that is yumm, the alcohol brings out the flavour.

Along with that one - into martinis?  Slice a cucumber, into glass with ice, a splash of gin and fill with vermouth - the cucumber flavours the drink with none of the burping qualities - so refreshing  Grin
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« Reply #9 on: October 25, 2010, 06:13:09 pm »


Quick strawberry shortbreads

By PATRICIA SOPER - The Southland Times | 5:00AM - Saturday, 23 October 2010

TEATIME TEMPTERS: Crisp lemon shortbreads topped with whipped cream and macerated strawberries is the perfect way to celebrate the coming of the berry season. The shortbreads can be made ahead of time and frozen or stored in an airtight container. Far too handy. — PATRICIA SOPER/The Southland Times.
TEATIME TEMPTERS: Crisp lemon shortbreads topped with
whipped cream and macerated strawberries is the perfect
way to celebrate the coming of the berry season. The
shortbreads can be made ahead of time and frozen
or stored in an airtight container. Far too handy.
 — PATRICIA SOPER/The Southland Times.


THE "shortness" in shortbread is determined by the dough's ratio of butter to flour.

Today's recipe uses a lot of butter when you consider the stated amount of flour, but this guarantees a light, flavoursome biscuit.

The soft mixture can be lightly rolled or forced through a large star nozzle in a piping bag; I have tried both methods and both work well.

If you roll the dough and shape the biscuits with a cookie cutter, make sure your bench and rolling pin are well floured and work with a third of the dough at a time. This way you will avoid re-rolling scraps and pressing surplus flour into your mixture.

The biscuits will nearly double in size as they cook, so leave plenty of room as you place them on the oven slide.

When cool, the shortbreads should be crisp but melt-in-the-mouth.


______________________________________

Shortbread ingredients:

  • 220g softened butter
  • ½ cup icing sugar
  • 1 Tbsp cornflour
  • 1 cup flour
  • ½ cup self-raising flour
  • ½ tsp salt
  • grated zest of medium lemon

Topping ingredients:

  • 200ml whipped cream
  • ½ tsp vanilla essence
  • 2 Tbsp caster sugar
  • 1 punnet strawberries

Topping method:

  • Hull and slice strawberries.

  • Place in a bowl then sprinkle with caster sugar and stir.

  • Cover with cling film and allow to sit at room temperature for about an hour.

  • Beat cream with vanilla essence and refrigerate.

Shortbread method:

  • Set oven at 180°C.

  • Beat butter and icing sugar to a cream.

  • Sift cornflour, flour, self-raising flour and salt together then slowly add to the mixture.

  • Beat in the lemon zest.

  • Working with small quantities, roll dough then cut with a small cutter.

  • The biscuits should be about 2.5cm across.

  • Place on oven slide lined with baking paper.

  • Bake for 15 minutes then cool on a rack.

  • Top with whipped cream and slices of the drained strawberries.

Cook's tips:

  • Prepare the topping before making the shortbread.

  • Soften the butter before beating for a good creaming result.

  • Sift icing sugar to avoid lumps.

  • Double-sift the three flours.

  • Use a fine grater for the lemon zest and avoid pith.

  • Line the oven slide with baking paper.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/southland-times/life-style/food/4261484/Quick-strawberry-shortbreads
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« Reply #10 on: November 19, 2010, 08:29:08 am »

I have picked 2 chips off my plants already this year. Yummy.

Money saved so far $5.80

Money spent on buying the plants $47.52 + $20 worth of potting mix + $6.99 worth of strawbeery fertiliser  Undecided

At this rate I need to pick another 24 chips of the 24 plants to break even.

Just as well I will be able to propagate my own plants for next year.
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Kiwithrottlejockey
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« Reply #11 on: November 20, 2012, 08:36:19 pm »


Strawberry thumbprint cookies

Make the most of strawberries being in season with something a
little different — thumbprint cookies topped with roasted berries.


By ALLISON PIRRIE-MAWER - Fairfax NZ News | 1:31PM - Tuesday, 20 November 2012

SWEET STRAWBERRIES: Thumbprint cookies with roasted strawberries. — Photo: ALISON PIRRIE-MAWER.
SWEET STRAWBERRIES: Thumbprint cookies with roasted strawberries.
 — Photo: ALISON PIRRIE-MAWER.


ROASTING is the perfect way to cook fruit while ensuring it retains its colour, shape and flavour. It's especially good for strawberries, especially if they're lacking in flavour.

Roasted strawberries are great with scones, but here I've used them to top a crisp thumprint cookie.


______________________________________

THUMBPRINT COOKIES

Ingredients:

  • 60g sugar
  • 120g butter
  • 120g plain flour
  • 60g ground almonds
  • 1 egg
  • ¼ tsp vanilla paste or seeds of ½ a bean


Method:

  • Heat oven to 200°C. Line a baking tray with nonstick baking paper.

  • Place sugar, flour, butter, ground almonds into a food processor and whiz them until they resemble breadcrumbs.

  • Add the egg and pulse slowly until the mixture forms a dough. Be careful not to over mix at this stage.

  • Remove biscuit dough from the food processor and divide into 12 equal portions.

  • Roll each portion into a ball and place onto a nonstick baking tray and pres the centre down with your thumb, almost all the way through.

  • At this stage you would add a blob of jam for thumbprint biscuits but I have baked mine naked so I can top them with strawberries.

  • Bake for 20 minutes until golden brown, remove from the oven and allow to cool.

  • Top each one with a roasted strawberry (recipe follows) and some of the strawberry syrup from roasting.

  • Eat immediately otherwise the strawberries will make the biscuit soft. If you're not eating them immediately, store the biscuits in a separate airtight container.

______________________________________

ROASTED STRAWBERRIES

Ingredients:

  • 1 chip/punnet of small strawberries, washed and hulled
  • 2 Tbsp vanilla syrup — or ½ a teaspoon of vanilla paste and 1 Tbsp sugar

Method:

  • Heat oven to 180°C.

  • Put the strawberries in a bowl with the vanilla syrup and stir gently. Take a large sheet of greaseproof paper and fip the strawberries onto it, then form the paper into a parcel around them. Fold the ends in to secure the parcel.

  • Place the strawberry filled parcel onto a baking tray and roast for 12 minutes. Strawberries should just start to soften but hold their shape still. Don't over roast or you will end up with mush.

______________________________________

For more recipes like this visit Pease Pudding.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/life-style/food-wine/recipes/7973992/Recipe-Strawberry-thumbprint-cookies
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Magoo
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« Reply #12 on: November 21, 2012, 06:52:59 am »

Just in from the garden with a bag ful of baby silver beet leaves, butter lettuce leaves, spring onions, italian parsley and the very first strawberry.   I had to eat it.  nom nom nom it was.   The plants are laden.    Will try this recipe, it will be a change from the other old favourite with balsamic vinegar.
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« Reply #13 on: November 21, 2012, 02:22:59 pm »


I've been munching on fresh strawberries from the WEE RED BARN on SH2 just north of Masterton for the past few weeks since they started harvesting them around Labour weekend. Their strawberries are to die for (as is all of their produce).

And I just had lunch with my sister at the 10 O'clock Cafe Bakery today (she was passing through enroute to Hastings) and she picked up a couple of large punnets of Wee Red Barn strawberries from their stand in Masterton across the road from the cafe. Naturally we sampled before she bought.

And the Scottish lady at the strawberry stand said they will be harvesting raspberries from tomorrow. They grow all of their berries beneath weather shades and the strawberries run from October right through until late-March/early-April. Their blackberries will be available shortly too.
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« Reply #14 on: October 19, 2013, 01:24:16 pm »


Weather slashes strawberry crops

One of the essential signs of summer are in short supply — strawberries.

By KAY BLUNDELL - The Dominion Post | 5:00AM - Saturday, 19 October 2013

CRUEL SPRING: Kimberley Gardens co-owner Babes Bevan says stormy weather has cut strawberry production by more than half. — KAY BLUNDELL/Fairfax NZ.
CRUEL SPRING: Kimberley Gardens co-owner Babes Bevan
says stormy weather has cut strawberry production by
more than half. — KAY BLUNDELL/Fairfax NZ.


THE DAYS are getting longer, and the weather's getting warmer — but one of the essential signs of summer is in short supply.

Early-season strawberries would usually be in the shops by now, at $1.60 to $1.80 a punnet.

But rain, strong winds and cool temperatures have slashed production in the lower North Island, hitting supplies in the South Island as well — and sending prices up to between $2 and $2.50.

Babes Bevan, co-owner of Kimberley Gardens, south of Levin, said stormy weather had damaged the first strawberry pickings of the season.

"It has cut production by more than half. We cannot supply any markets at the moment, just locals on a day-to-day basis," she said.

Kimberley Gardens normally supplied strawberries to markets in Palmerston North, Wellington and Dunedin this time of year.

"Because there is no volume, there is not enough to put on the truck at the moment."

They started picking their first crop about a month ago, but strong winds damaged the berries before Monday's storm struck, and resulted in more than half their first crop being wiped out.

"They were still saleable with the wind damage, but with the rain damage you can only chop them up."

Normally at this time of year they would pick four to five kilograms a row. This year they were lucky to get nearly two.

George Sue, secretary of the Tararua Growers Association, representing growers from Otaki to Opiki, said the roll-on effects were a worry — "how far it is going to set back the main cropping, how much of the blossoms and fruit will be lost".


http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/news/9302157/Weather-slashes-strawberry-crops
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« Reply #15 on: October 19, 2013, 01:28:29 pm »


There may be an issue with strawberries In the Horowhenua district from Otaki to Opiki, but on the eastern side of the Tararua Ranges, the Wee Red Barn at Opaki just north of Masterton have been harvesting and selling strawberries since the beginning of October. And they are delicious too....I have been indulging in them. The Wee Red Barn grow their berries (all varieties) beneath shade cloths and surrounded by windbreaks, so adverse weather seldom affects them. They only supply the local market though, directly from their Wee Red Barn shop at Opaki and from a number of stalls they set up in Masterton and Carterton, plus a small number of restaurants in Wairarapa and Wellington.
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« Reply #16 on: October 20, 2013, 03:04:30 pm »

I have spent a few days in Hawkes Bay and have been munching on the delicious rich tasting strawberries I brought back from Scott's Strawberry Farm in Havelock North. I brought back enough to last me all week
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« Reply #17 on: July 01, 2014, 12:10:14 pm »


from The Dominion Post....

Drenched gardens bode badly for summer treats

By KAY BLUNDELL | 5:00AM - Tuesday, 01 July 2014

STRAWBERRIES

LONG SPELLS of wet weather drenching Otaki and Horowhenua during the past couple of months have dented hopes of a good strawberry crop this year.

Brent Bertelsen, owner of Penray Gardens at Te Horo, said his crops of strawberries and salad vegetables would be down a third on last year's.

He usually laid polythene for his strawberries in April, but said that constant wet weather had delayed him doing so until about a fortnight ago.

He had also had to reduce the amount of polythene, and cut back on his usual strawberry planting by about a third.

"The tractor was sinking ... we will have to plant other crops at the end of rows," he said.

Woodhaven Gardens owner John Clarke, who grows green-leafed vegetables such as lettuce, spring onions, cabbage and spinach on about 245 hectares in Levin, said the number of wet days, rather than the amount of rain that had fallen, had affected vegetable production markedly.

"We went from a drought till April to rain that has not stopped. It has been extremely wet ... It has been a nightmare."

Because there had been big gaps in planting, there would be gaps in production later, depending on the spring, Clarke said.

"Right now, you do not want to be a market gardener."

According to the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research, Levin received about twice the average rainfall in April, 134 percent in May and 59 percent calculated so far for June.


http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/10216548/Drenched-gardens-bode-badly-for-summer-treats
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Kiwithrottlejockey
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« Reply #18 on: December 25, 2014, 10:56:48 am »



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