Grow your own strawberries

We know summer is here when our strawberry patch, which we essentially ignore for the rest of the year, decides to remind us of its presence by spewing forth endless bowls of strawberries for one awesome month of the year. This year we’ve already had an amazing haul and there is plenty more to go.

So I’ve been trying out plenty of things to use them up, including eating them straight off the plant and giving them away to friends! But there are plenty of other things you can do with them that involves slightly more effort.

I got a pre-made flan case and added some whipped cream sweetened with a little honey to create an exciting looking strawberry dessert which looked rather more impressive than it deserved given that it took me about 5 minutes to throw together. I guess you could make the flan case if you could be bothered, clearly I couldn’t.

And then this morning after I went to pick another load, I took the opportunity to wake The Boy up with a fresh picked strawberry smoothie – nice and thick with twice as many berries as milk and absolutely nothing added. I think that worked as a nice pick-me-up to make his transition from sleep into the world a little easier!

I guess that even these little ideas may well be too much effort for some and sometimes I think keeping things simple can be the best, so what else can I do but wish you all a lovely summer and say “Cheers!” Here’s to a little more gardening!