Stephanie shares her ideas for enjoying these sweet summer favourites...
Lucky gardeners will have prolific strawberry plants, spilling with gorgeous scarlet fruit. Picked straight from the plants they are a gardener’s favourite snack. If they make it to the kitchen they can be sliced onto your breakfast muesli with a spoonful of yoghurt. Everyone loves strawberries and cream, or strawberries and icecream, but less well-known are strawberries sprinkled with sugar and a small splash of balsamic vinegar. Stir gently and then leave them for half an hour. Serve the berries and the juices. A refreshing summer drink combines chunks of seeded watermelon, sliced strawberries and the juice of a lemon. (Use two-thirds watermelon and one-third strawberries). Whizz all together in a blender until smooth. Two very simple English sweets are Strawberry fool and Eton mess. Strawberry fool combines an equal quantity of well-mashed strawberry with stiffly whipped cream. Fold together until almost mixed through. Swirls of darker pink look pretty amongst the pale-pink cream. Eton mess combines crushed meringues with whipped cream and coarsely crushed strawberries. Both the Strawberry fool and the Eton mess look lovely served in pretty glass dishes.
An Ararat Primary School student tends to a strawberry planting
