Strawberry Time in Georgia - by frances robson
Good evening and come on in for a visit. As you can tell from the pictures strawberries are ready in Georgia and we have several farms in the area where we can buy them picked or pick them yourself. At our age, letting them pick them is the way we go for after all there are some perks to getting older.
We have one farm about 25 minutes from us which has now added a new market store which is beautiful. The new store and website can be found at http://www.rutlandfarms.com/index.html. I like to buy my berries there for they pack them so beautifully and you surely get your money's worth.
These 2 pictures show all the berries we got and I found 1 bad strawberry! I froze some, sliced and frozen in muffin tin cups for our smoothies, some in bags for the freezer and I have a half gallon jar in the fridge with fresh ones to eat as snacks. If you leave the stems on and don't wash, you can keep them in a glass jar with a tight lid for several days. As you can tell we like strawberries and those picked fresh from the farm are so much sweeter than those you buy in the supermarkets.
This farm also has blackberries, blueberries, peaches, pecans and vegetables plus honey from their own hives. This year they have added pecan oil and I sure plan to get some to use in salad dressings and stir fry. I have not used pecan oil but it sounds interesting and I will let you know how it tastes.
On another subject, we drink smoothies most every morning and like chocolate in it. I have been using a bought chocolate milk mix but is was getting quite expensive so I began to look for a recipe to make my own and remembered mama's chocolate milk and found one like hers. I make ours with Splenda so it has no sugar but you can use sugar if you like. This is the recipe and you can use it in cold chocolate milk or in smoothies. Enjoy!!
CHOCOLATE MILK MIX
1 c. cocoa1 c. sugar or Splenda
1/2 tsp. salt
Combine ingredients until thoroughly mixed. Put mix in jar and store for handy use. I put the ingredients in a plastic bag and shake well and store in the plastic bag or put in glass jar.
Use 2-3 tablespoons of mix with 8 ounces of cold milk for a delicious chocolate milk. To mix the chocolate into the milk put just a little milk into blender, add chocolate mixture, pulse a couple of times to combine then add the remainder of the milk. Another method is to put the chocolate in a glass, add a little milk, mix into a roux mixture and add the remainder of the milk and the little whisk that comes with hot chocolate mix does a great job of mixing. If you like, put into a jar with a tight fitting top and shake well. If you like it more “chocolately” add additional mix. This is really good and you know what ingredients are in it and costs much less than the bought mix.
I hope you will support your local farmers and find a farm with fresh fruit and vegetables and eat healthier and cheaper. I love my farmers!!
Ya'll be careful going home and come back to see me.
Nuff said,
The Georgia Peach
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