"strawberries" news and stories

It's time for food-fair aficionados to loosen their belts or, better yet, don elastic-waist pants. From plentiful strawberries to mudbug stranglers, local festivals are beginning to bloom -- beauty pageants included. As you'll see, most of the featured events are in the South. With the spring harvest, the South gives good reason for belly-stuffing.

West Tennessee Strawberry Festival, May 2-8, Humboldt, Tenn.: Kick off May in the South by munching on strawberries at tractor and horse shows, recipe competitions, two parades as well as races at which you can burn off those sweet calories. There will be fireworks following the official opening ceremonies on May 3. No word on whether there will be any strawberry-shaped pyrotechnics.

Dermott Crawfish Festival, May 14-15, Dermott, Ark.: In its 27th year, this festival pays homage to the delectable freshwater crustacean in its myriad presentations, including the popular boil. If you plan on attending, please remember the proper method of eating crawfish -- "suck the head, pinch the tail" -- and you'll get the most out of the rides, vendors and live entertainment.

American Craft Beer Week, May 17-23, Nationwide: What's a month without a beer festival? This isn't the only beer bash in May, but it is the largest. From sea to shining sea, get your suds on when craft breweries, beer bars and homebrewers raise their collective pints in your honor.

A rose is a rose, even when it's part of an intensely flavored sorbet with fresh strawberries. This time, it's in a syrup made from rose water, plain water and sugar that blogger Dayna McIssac incorporated into her frosty, fruity dessert. This Epicurious recipe for rose water syrup will help get you started.

Middle Eastern desserts are often flavored with the sweetly floral rose water. You can make your own, which involves simmering rose petals in a covered pot on the stove (I leave this to other, more industrious souls), or you can buy it premade (find a source here). Rose water is also featured in this Persian ice cream recipe from a fellow Slashfood contributors.

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The spicy-sweet strawberry salsa with which blogger Everybody Likes Sandwiches liberally tops grilled cod is gorgeously red, with tomatoes and red onion chiming in. Vibrantly flavored with chives, cilantro, chile and lime juice, it could stand up to a much bolder fish.

Fruit salsas add tropical notes where you'd guess they'd be found, such as in this recipe for mahi mahi with cumin oil and pineapple salsa, and where you might find them surprising, as in a recipe for skirt steak with orange-cilantro salsa.

Become a member of the Slashfood Flickr pool to get a shot of having your photos featured in Feast Your Eyes.

Young green strawberry. Photo: tanakawho, Flickr.

• Ontario farmers beat the heat challenge and find a way to grow fresh, sweet strawberries until first frost.
• "Mud to Mouth" takes 6 acres of donated farm land and shows students where food comes from.
• After financial woes, Jamie Kennedy sells the Jamie Kennedy Wine Bar.
• Toronto's Recipe for Community hopes to bring generations together and rebuild the community of Alexandra Park.
• A talk with Jen Yates of Cake Wrecks, and how her blog has become a book.
• September 24th marked the 250th anniversary of Guinness.
• Wine critic Gord Stimmel's global values cover Italy, California, South Africa, Spain and Australia.
• Recipes: Coconut Curry, Chicken and Corn Chowder, Grilled Tomato Vinaigrette Chicken, Turkish Beet Salad.

Jonathan Waters. Photo: Robert Messick.

Strawberries with wine? It's not a pairing most people ask Chez Panisse sommelier Jonathan Waters about. In fact, he can't remember anyone ever asking him to take the sweet-tart berry -- which has dotted dessert menus for much of the summer -- and combine it with a crisp, ethereal vino. Champagne, yes, but wine, no.

"It's pretty rare that somebody would have strawberries with wine," says Waters (no relation to that other Chez Panisse Waters), who has worked at the restaurant for more than 20 years.

That said, he thinks the two are a very plausible match and was up to the challenge. We caught up with him to chat strawberries, Alice Waters' practice of finishing a meal with seasonal fruit, and his thoughts on organic wine.

Do you guys ever serve whole strawberries?
We do. We serve them at the end of a meal. Alice's idea is that the perfect end of a meal is a fruit. If you have ever read [David Mas] Masumoto's book about peaches ... we only serve strawberries for a very short window because it's a short season when they are perfect.

Does the restaurant serve them other ways?
We serve strawberries with other things for a longer period, like macerated strawberries over sherbet or strawberry shortcake.