I made a pit stop in Fort Plain, NY, to see Fred and Kammy (my brother-in-law and his partner) at their farm (Stubborn Girl Farm) as I was heading home from a week in Rochester with my sister.
What is very usual is finding Fred and Kammy elbows deep in something food-related. Coming into their large working kitchen is like walking into a cooking show. Kammy just happened to be prepping a strawberry rhubarb pie - waiting for my delivery of berries- but also an asparagus quiche and a spinach pie. Fred was plotting out another flower bed for Kammy’s newest obsession: growing flowers. These guys are homesteaders and, over the past year, have expanded their land on the Mohawk River from a high-producing pig and vegetable farm (a CSA business) to growing for themselves (and lucky friends!). A move that has brought more downtime and, although still time-consuming, is more of love labor than mostly labor.
Both of these guys have buckets of talent and passion not only for growing their food but also for cooking and preserving it. I left the farm with a jar of their homemade garlic powder, a jar of dry tarragon, six jars of their canned tomato sauce, an enormous bunch of rhubarb, kale, asparagus, and several heads of lettuce.
I’ll tell you more about that, them and the farm on Friday.
Some things just belong together — and strawberries + rhubarb is one of those pairings.
Rhubarb fascinates me. Technically, it’s a vegetable, but it somehow found its way into the dessert world — most often right alongside strawberries. It’s sharp, tart, a little wild. Its giant leaves are toxic (so handle with care), but the stalks? That’s where the magic is. And it shows up right alongside strawberries every spring— perfectly timed for each other like it was planned.
Together, they balance each other perfectly.
Right now, I’m tossing roughly cut strawberries into a honey-sweetened rhubarb compote — and spooning it over yogurt. It is simple, satisfying, and a reminder that some partnerships are just meant to be.
Simple Strawberry Ideas—low fuss, high joy!
I was thumbing through my cookbooks — a parade of gorgeous strawberry recipes: cakes, tarts, pavlovas, layer this, whip that. And they’re beautiful. But sometimes, I don’t want to bake a cake. Or a pavlova. Or roll pie dough.
Sometimes, I just want to eat the strawberries. Let them do their thing. Maybe with a little twist, but not so much that they lose what makes them so perfect to begin with.
And for me, right now, that means little or no added sugar and very little fuss.
Tossed into yogurt, over ice cream, folded into lightly sweetened cream or crème fraîche or featured in a compote, here are a few ideas:
Strawberry Rhubarb Compote
roughly chop (about 1/2 inch pieces) 2 cups of cleaned rhubarb and put in a sauté pan with 2-4 tablespoons honey or maple syrup. Cover the pan and cook on low heat for about 8-10 minutes, until the rhubarb has broken down and is tender. Add 3-4 cups of washed strawberries, cut in half, to the pan, toss, cover, and let cook on low heat for about 4-5 minutes. Turn off the heat and let the compote sit, covered, for 15 minutes. Turn it into a dish and chill.
Roasted Jammy Strawberries (featured in the above video)
Set the oven to 300° and spread the whole, washed strawberries on a sheet pan in an even layer. OPTIONAL: toss with 1-2 tablespoons balsamic creme or a very aged and syrupy balsamic vinegar. Cook for 1 hour. Chill overnight.
Macerated Strawberries
toss 4 cups sliced berries with 1/2 cup Muscat wine and a twist of lemon peel or a few leaves of fresh lemon verbena. Chill for several hours.
Freezer Stash
Hull and freeze extra berries while they’re perfect — you’ll be grateful later. Smoothies, sauces, quick compotes — all ready when you are.
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