Strawberry Shortcake Festivals
By Mary Emma Allen
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A
young guest at Plant City's Strawberry Festival
Photo credit Kathleen Walls |
Strawberry festivals provided memorable
events in my childhood. As you travel today, you may find other
towns have these taste tantalizing affairs, or those surrounding
other foods raised in the local area.
The one in our town was conducted by the
ladies of the local Methodist Church, although anyone could
attend. For a small fee, you enjoyed strawberry delights -
shortcake, pie and homemade ice cream. No other food was served,
so it was mainly a dessert social time, something we looked
forward to during strawberry season each year.
At first it was held at Jack and
Nellie's large farmhouse with spacious lawn, back and front
porches. There were continual sittings. Church ladies continued
to make biscuits, churn ice cream as people arrived. The pies
had been made beforehand.
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Chef
prepares a treat at Plant City
Strawberry Festival.
Photo
Credit Kathleen Walls |
Eventually the event became so large
that it was moved to the town hall with kitchen and large indoor
space for serving. At any of these, adults visited and children
played games in the yard. As we girls grew older, we helped
serve.
Around the country, strawberry and berry
festivals take place in many small towns. Restaurants also
include berry desserts on their menus.
During this season, you may want to
serve these tasty treats in home for family and guests.
Berry Tarts
You can make fruit and berry tarts with
many different types of crusts. These include traditional pastry
crust, as well as those made with wheat pastry flour, cookie
crumbs (vanilla or chocolate) and graham cracker crumbs,
Arrange your fruit in the crust and then
coat with a ORANGE/LEMON GLAZE. In a small saucepan, combine 3/4
cup fresh orange juice, 1/4 cup fresh lemon juice and 3/4 cup
honey.
Bring these ingredients to a boil over
medium heat and stir constantly. Simmer for about 20 minutes,
until slightly thickened. Cool. Then pour desired amount over
the fruit in your crust. You may not want the entire amount.
Some cooks like to spoon vanilla or chocolate pudding over
the crust first, then add the fruit of choice and brush the
fruit with glaze. Amount used depends on individual
preference because the glaze is quite sweet. You also can
use a strawberry
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A beautiful shortcake
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Berry Shortcake
We often purchase the frozen buttermilk biscuits and bake
only what we need for the particular meal. While warm, we spoon
mashed berries and fruit over the biscuit and top with whipped
topping or a spoonful of vanilla ice cream.
I've found that by using the frozen biscuits, there isn't
any waste. I suppose I could bake my usual recipe of biscuits
and freeze the leftover ones for future use.
(c)2013 Mary Emma Allen
(Mary Emma Allen writes from her home in
New Hampshire. She writes books for children and adults and
teaches workshops on family history writing. Currently she's
writing a Civil War era children's book based on her family
history. E-mail:
me.allen@juno.com .)