Strawberries . . . let me count the ways

The local strawberry season has already come and gone. The sweet and tender Vancouver Island Juneberries don't last long. I bought two flats of berries, a week apart, and had to eat and/or process all of the berries within 24 hours. It was a yummy, crazy, mess.

What to do with all of these berries?

I ate them for breakfast:

Greek yogurt, strawberries and honey

And for lunch:

Strawberry smoothie

And for dinner:

Salmon burger with strawberries on the side

I even had them for a snack:

I made strawberry jam, strawberry sauce and strawberries in sugar syrup:

And, the best thing I made? Baked french toast with strawberries AND (last year's) raspberry sauce. I love berry season!

Baked French toast

Thank goodness raspberry season starts soon!

Summer

Ahhhhh . . . .

My renovations are almost complete, I've unpacked all of my boxes and I have returned from a lovely, but exhausting, adventure on the East Coast. I feel like I am starting to breathe again after the chaos of the last few months. To celebrate this, and the arrival of summer, I have decided to eat as many berries as I can over the next few months. For what signals lazy times more than the preparation and munching of little juicy morsels of bliss?

My berry extravaganza begins with strawberries!

I bought a whole flat of beautiful June berries grown right here on the island.

Then I made jam. Mmmmmm.

My goal is to make 12 jars so that I can have one per month throughout the year. I've made 6 and already polished off one. I am not quite sure how my plan will work out!

Next, I made Strawberry Shortcake. The real kind. Not the spongy weird stuff from the grocery store.

So, so good.

And, of course, I had to make crepes. For what is life without crepes?

And, lastly, I finished the strawberry festivities off with some scoops of vanilla bean ice cream, my strawberry jam and some freshly chopped strawberries. What could be better?

I went through more than a flat of strawberries in less than a week and will be headed back out to the berry farm to pick up some more tomorrow.

It's Strawberry Season!

Mmmm. I love berries. I think that raspberries are my favourite, but I was recently reminded of the bliss of a perfectly ripe strawberry when I bought some from a local orchard. I don't know when I last had a decent strawberry, but these berries reminded me of the "fake" strawberry flavour in lifesavers.

I just HAD to capture the strawberry goodness I discovered, so I made jam. Two batches. I made a batch of uncooked freezer jam and a batch of traditional pectin free jam. They are both delicious.

The traditional jam (front) tastes very much that: sweet, sticky, traditional jam. The non cooked freezer jam (back) tastes like perfectly ripe strawberries. I can't decide which one I like best. My cat, Ollie, was convinced that he also likes jam. I am not so sure how jam fits in with an "obligate carnivore" diet, but who am I to question good taste?

I also recently made my Strawberry Fields Forever Cupcakes. I make them with frozen strawberries, but I bet they'd be even better with local fresh berries. I might have to test that theory :)