Berries are back

Friday, May 9, 2008

Click here to enlarge this photo Staff photos by REID SILVERMAN Salome Hostetler of Mechanicsville prepares baskets of strawberries for a stand at the Charlotte Hall Farmer’s Market on Wednesday morning. E-Mail This Article | Print This Story

Vendors at the farmer’s market in Charlotte Hall started setting out baskets of red, ripe strawberries, a key harbinger of the area’s growing season.

‘‘They are sort of the signal to the start of the produce season,” said Ben Beale, agriculture and natural resources educator for the University of Maryland Cooperative Extension, of the red berries this week. There ‘‘should be a good to above average crop of strawberries this year. I was out to a couple of farms yesterday, and they are starting to pick in earnest now.”

The strawberries being sold now are the annual variety that is grown over the winter. ‘‘We’ll be getting those for about a month,” he said.

Then will come the perennial strawberries, which will start showing up in June and ‘‘they’ll go through most of the summer ... The peak of the season is sort of toward June.”

Noah and Salome Hostetler of Mechanicsville are regular vendors at the Charlotte Hall Farmer’s Market, where they are selling baskets of strawberries, along with greenhouse-grown tomatoes, asparagus and multi-colored flowers. Taking a break from setting up their stand on Wednesday morning, Salome said the strawberries haven’t been selling well yet, and she suspects people just don’t know they’re available.

In addition to eating strawberries plain, she suggested using them in strawberry pie, making jams and jellies.

‘‘Of course, strawberry shortcake,” Noah said. ‘‘Everybody likes that.”

Salome also suggested a dessert that uses strawberries or other fresh fruit. First, make a strawberry pie filling, she said, and set it aside while you make a cake. When the cake is almost done, poke holes in it, she said. Then, once the cake is cooled, cover the cake with the strawberry pie filling, allowing the filling to soak down in the holes.

‘‘That’s a favorite among the Amish,” she said.

Liat Mackey, family and consumer sciences educator for the University of Maryland Cooperative Extension, said she likes to eat strawberries with just a little bit of sugar, if they aren’t sweet enough, and a little bit of cinnamon, a trick she learned from her husband. ‘‘Cinnamon brings out the sweetness in them,” she said. ‘‘It helps you cut back on the amount of sugar you need.”

Strawberries are nutritious. ‘‘Oh, absolutely,” Mackey said.

They are high in vitamin C and are also a significant source of fiber and phytochemicals, as well as potassium. They are fat-free, sodium-free and low in calories.

If strawberries are cooked, they lose some of their vitamin C value, but retain it if the berries are frozen for later use.

The thing about strawberries is they don’t last very long, Mackey said. They should not be washed before storing in the refrigerator. Just before they are eaten or prepared, however, they should be thoroughly rinsed under tepid or cool water, ideally in a colander so the water can wash away any bacteria. ‘‘Give them a gentle toss and make sure they all get washed,” she said.

When buying strawberries, Mackey advised looking for an even bright red color. They don’t ripen more once they are picked like bananas do, she said. Choose berries that ‘‘have a nice aroma ... [that are] nice and firm and not mushy,” she added. ‘‘Look at the leaves ... They should look fresh too.”

While local strawberries will be available through early summer, some suggest early in the season is the best time to buy. ‘‘The prime season for strawberries is right now ... for the next three weeks and then in June,” Beale said.