While most merely revel in the splendor of fresh strawberries, food preservers and commercial packers are always casting an eye ahead to less bountiful times.
Times when homemade strawberry preserves would be the perfect topping for your morning toast. Times in the deep of winter when you ca
n haul out your precious cache of ruby-fruited jam and bring a smile back into the kitchen.
Oregon berry icon Bob Conroy, who owned and operated Conroy Packing Co. in Woodburn from 1955 to 1990, once reminisced with me about commercial freezing practices more than 50 years ago.
Conroy’s professional life revolved around Oregon berries. In the early 1970s, he was one of the innovators in the processing of IQF (individually quick frozen) berries. In the late 1980s, he was instrumental in the processing and sale of strawberries to Japan and in the early 1990s his participation was pivotal in helping to get berries into the USDA School Lunch Program.
But way back in the earlier part of the 20th century, things were much more primitive, Conroy said.
Born in 1922, he would have been a youngster at the time, but remembers working with fresh Oregon strawberries as though it were yesterday.
“We used to pack them in 50-gallon wooden barrels. Then we’d stack them in cold storage areas where those old compressors could actually get the temperature down to about 5 degrees below zero and keep it there.”
Conroy said that the hefty barrels containing about 375 pounds of fruit and sugar had to be rolled every two days until the contents were completely frozen.
“And oh boy, was that a lot of work. They didn’t have lift trucks, so it had to be done by hand.”
Packing also was done by hand. The ratio was about 90 pounds of sugar to 285 pounds of fruit, he said, give or take a few pounds. “They just sort of layer-packed them. They’d run in about 3 inches of fruit, then about half an inch of sugar. And then they’d put about 6 inches of fruit and 3 inches of sugar, and so on until the barrel was filled. It wasn’t perfectly accurate, but it was close enough.”
Then, in 1938, Birdseye introduced the first retail pack of frozen strawberries.
“It was a daring thing to do,” he recalled.
But the public took to the little packages of fruit that had been packed right there in Hillsboro.
“Can you imagine,” exclaimed Conroy, “strawberries at Christmas time!”
For Conroy, the memory of working with the berries from Forest Grove that came into the plant is still vivid.
“I’d take a berry off the line as they were running by and hold it between my forefinger and thumb. Then I would sliiiide it through the sugar to build up a real good coating. Ooooh, that was good.”
To freeze strawberries: It’s simple. Just wash and dry the berries thoroughly, then layer them on a shallow baking sheet and freeze until the berries are very firm. Tumble them into freezer-grade plastic bags and freeze.
Every couple of years I run this fabulous recipe because I get so many requests.
Mix up a big batch for all summer long. But don’t limit its use to adult beverages. This mix is fabulous served simply as a dairy-free frozen dessert, or as a strawberry jolt in your morning blender drink. And once school starts up again, your frozen cache of frozen strawberry mix can make a quick after-school blender treat with juice, banana (or pear or peach) and anything else that tickles the fancy.
Frozen strawberry daiquiri mix
2 cups granulated sugar
1/3 cup fresh lime juice (juice from 2 medium limes)
1/4 cup water
1 quart fresh strawberries, washed and hulled
Combine sugar, lime juice and water in bowl. Stir to mix, and then let stand until sugar is almost completely dissolved, about 15 minutes (mixture will be thick).
In blender jar or food processor, combine the sugar mixture with the berries. Blend until smooth. Pack into half-pint-, pint-, or quart-size freezer containers; freeze. An alternate method for packing would be to pour the mixture into ice cube trays and freeze until firm, unmold and pack into zip-lock freezer bags.
The mixture will become solid, but will have the consistency of a very firm sherbet, so you will be able to scoop portions from the main batch, then re-seal the mixture if you desire.
Yields about 4 2/3 cups.
For each strawberry daiquiri: In blender jar, combine 3 tablespoons rum (light or dark), 1/4 cup frozen strawberry daiquiri mix (2 average-sized cubes that have been frozen in ice cube trays) and about 3/4 cup of ice cubes (7 or 8 average sized cubes). Blend until smooth. Most blender jars can handle up to 4 servings.
Jan Roberts-Dominguez is a Corvallis, Ore., food writer, artist, and author of “Oregon Hazelnut Country, the Food, the Drink, the Spirit,” and four other cookbooks. Readers can contact her by email at janrd@proaxis.com, or obtain additional recipes and food tips on her blog at www.janrd.com.
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