Strawberry Picking

We went strawberry picking on Memorial Day weekend at an organic farm out East on Long Island called The Golden Earthworm. We picked 9 quarts of strawberries that day and we were the first customers of the season! They just opened their fields for picking! It was really easy picking , we filled the 9 quarts at record speed, and the berries were so fresh they actually popped (made a snapping/ popping sound) when we picked them!

We came home and hulled and washed and froze a majority of them, but then some we ate plain, some I made into strawberry fruit leather (with no sweetener and a little organic store bought applesauce with my dehydrator. Oh the SMELL of those strawberries in the dehydrator smelled so GREAT! Better than any store bought air freshener, and it lasted all day!

You could add fruit to muffins also, I also want to make some jam (saw some cool recipes in the Blendtec blender recipe book.

I also dehydrated sliced strawberries to add to granola/trail mix and for the kids to add to their cereal.

I have to post my idea for gluten free"hand" fruit pies, strawberries would be great in that too!

Also for those of you that are gluten free always ask the farm what type of grass/hay is used in between the rows of strawberries in this case it was rye grass (rye has gluten, but more in the seed heads that were cut off to make flour) The grass can also be wheat/barley or a mixture etc.We washed the berries well and hoped for the best..and we had no issues with allergies that we knew of...this is another way gluten can "sneak" into your diet...Enjoy this season's berries adn use them well!