What to do with so many strawberries?!?!

In my previous post, I blogged about visiting Alstede Farms in Chester, NJ to pick our own strawberries. When we got home, we realized that maybe we overdid the picking and ended up with way more strawberries than we were planning to get.

Check this out. A whole large colander full of strawberries! What can I do with all that?? Sure, it would be super yummy if we just ate it with cream...but how much strawberries can we actually eat? :P

Well, the first thing I did was to separate the strawberries out in three different bowls, according to size. I have learnt not to wash the strawberries or to remove their caps until I am ready to eat them or use them in a recipe. Since strawberries absorb water easily, washing them makes them turn soggy and soft. The caps of the strawberries keeps moisture from entering the strawberries.

The best way to keep whole strawberries in the refrigerator is to put some paper towels in a colander and the strawberries on top of that. It should remain fresh for about 3-4 days. I wanted to macerate the strawberries for some of the recipes I am planning to make. So, I started by slicing up the medium sized strawberries and placed them in a container.

I added about 1/2 a cup of sugar and mixed it together with the strawberry slices and set it aside at room temperature for about 15 minutes to macerate. I then popped it into the refrigerator.

In the next few posts, I will share with you what we made with the strawberries. We still have a little bit more left but here is a list of the stuff that we have already made thus far.

• Chocolate & Almond Coated Strawberries
• Strawberry Champagne Punch
• Thick Strawberry Milkshake
• Strawberry & Chocolate Sundae
• Strawberry Shortcake

I might make some Strawberry Jam tomorrow if we still have enough strawberries left. I don't know, I'm currently going into a strawberry overload mode. Maybe we might just take a little break from all this strawberries for now. :P