Hooray for spring and new growth! My absolute favorite part of the spring and summer is enjoying the abundance of local produce – especially things that you can pick yourself.
Some photos from our recent strawberry picking adventures…
Aside from eating them straight out of the ground, we’ve been enjoying eating strawberry shortcake (with that layer of cake salvaged from that bridal shower post) and chocolate fondue with strawberries. Oh and we started drinking them, too!
On a trip to San Fran a couple of years ago, we went to this cute restaurant called Park Chow by Golden Gate Park. They had delicious strawberry basil and watermelon mint coolers. We tried to make something similar with the recipe below (pretty close!).
Strawberry Mint Cooler (Original Recipe)
Makes 1 liter
10 very ripe strawberries, crushed
1 large mint sprig, stem removed (or 2 small)
Juice from a lime
1 liter seltzer
Mint Simple Syrup
1.5 cups water
1 cup granulated sugar
1 large mint sprig
Garnish
Ice
4 ripe strawberries, thinly sliced
Additional crushed mint leaves
Make the mint simple syrup: Bring water and sugar to a boil in a small saucepan, stirring to dissolve sugar. Add mint sprig and boil until liquid is reduced by half. Cool to room temperature (can add ice cubes to speed up cooling).
Add the crushed strawberries and juice to a pitcher. Crush the mint leaves with a mortar and pestle to release the oils (pressing with a knife on a cutting board also works). Add the crushed mint leaves and lime to the pitcher. Stir in the mint syrup. Fill pitcher with seltzer. Chill in the fridge for 1 hour to let flavors combine.
Fill glasses with sliced strawberries, mint leaves, and ice for garnish, then pour in strawberry-mint mixture. Enjoy out on your deck or patio with a good book!