Celebrate Spring with Strawberry Muffins.

Are you still awake? Oh, good. I know it's late, but since tomorrow is Monday, I really, really think you need to stay up just a little longer to ensure a happy start to your week.

Honestly, it's been such a wet and gloomy weekend here, and tomorrow looks like more of the same. The good news? School's out for summer! (Sing along if you like!) The bad news? The wet weather ushers in the end of strawberry season.

We eagerly await the first strawberry of the season. After all, what announces spring more than a scrumptious, juice-dripping, warm-from-the-sun strawberry? Then, in a blink of an eye—and maybe because we're all so wrapped up with end of school year programs, finals, awards days, playoff games, camp registration, and the assorted noise of every day—the strawberry sign pointing to the farm vanishes.

In a panic, I drove by, only to see “Sold Out” handwritten on a paper taped to the farm stand door. The strawberries in our garden are dwindling, so it shouldn't come as a great surprise that the farm by us would be done, too. But, with the craziness in getting ready for the farm tour, I completely forgot to freeze strawberries to get us through to next spring. 

So, like any good locavore, I sent out an emergency plea to my Facebook friends to find out if strawberries could be found.

Thank goodness for social media, because within moments, I had the names of three farms still selling berries. Within two hours, I returned with two gallons of strawberries in my possession.

Whew. Disaster averted.

Here's the thing: you need to make these muffins immediately, while you can get your hands on fresh strawberries. Although you can use frozen berries, it's just not the same celebratory spring muffin. I'm sure it's good, but the best part of baking strawberry muffins is savoring one fresh-from-the-garden, delicious strawberry that emits the sweet scent of spring while you chop the other berries to add to the mix. The aroma alone will make your mouth water.

I made these muffins for the CFSA Upstate Farm Tour, and they seemed to be a hit. In the next batch, though, I experimented with adding a streusel topping—and I liked it even better. (I should have taken a photo with streusel. Sorry.)

Strawberry Muffins

(Makes 18 muffins)

Ingredients
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
2 tablespoons ground cinnamon
1-1/4 cups milk
2 large eggs, beaten
1/2 pound (2 sticks) unsalted butter, melted
2-1/2 cups diced fresh strawberries
1-1/2 cups sugar

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Line muffin pan with paper liners or grease muffin pan.

Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon in a large bowl, mixing thoroughly. In a separate bowl, combine the milk, eggs, and melted butter. Add the liquid ingredients slowly into the flour mixture, mixing until just combined. (There will be some lumps in the batter.) Add the strawberries and sugar to the batter, stirring gently to combine.

Spoon the batter into the muffin cups to fill the liners ¾ full. Sprinkle streusel topping (see below) on top of the muffins. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into muffin comes out clean and the muffins are lightly browned.

Streusel Topping

1-1/3 cups sugar
1-1/3 cups flour
1-3/4 tablespoons water
3 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 cup butter, softened

Mix all ingredients until crumbly.

Now, with a warm strawberry muffin in your tummy, the challenge of Monday seems less daunting, doesn't it?

Hope you have a lovely week!

XOXO ~

Julie 

(Shared with The Backyard Farming Connection Blog Hop, From the Farm, and Wildcrafting Wednesday.)

Edible Dreams.

 For the past week, I've dreamt of gardens.

 

Elaborate gardens, formal gardens, lush mountain paradises, quirky artists' gardens, community gardens. A few of those dreams left me in a cold sweat, panicked about our own gardens—and the impending Carolina Farm Stewardship Association's Upstate Farm Tour that will feature our edible gardens this weekend.

After spending four days touring magnificent gardens during the Garden Bloggers' Fling in Asheville, I'm feeling a bit anxious about our gardens. First of all—we're not a farm. We live in a subdivision with a Homeowners' Association, on less than an acre. One of the reasons, though, that we're included on the farm tour is to show how a typical family living in suburbia can grow healthy, organic food in the backyard—or front yard. Or balcony. Or in containers. My goal is that everyone who visits us during the farm tour will be inspired to grow something edible this summer. (Or, perhaps Chicken Mama will convince them to add pet chickens to their lives.)

Still, while I know that the farm tour doesn't focus on pristine flower beds (ignore the weeds, please) or perfectly mulched paths (they aren't), I can't help but judge our gardens based on the four days of gorgeous landscapes I experienced in Asheville.

We don't have the staff of Biltmore to tame unruly perennials or to design perfect kitchen gardens. But then again, neither does Sunny Point Café.

One of my favorite stops on our tour, Sunny Point Café is the epitome of the farm-to-table movement—or, in its case, back lot garden-to-table.

As our group traipsed across the street from our bus to the Café, I barely contained my excitement. I knew of Sunny Point Café from reading reviews of area local food establishments, and a restaurant that fed guests from its own kitchen garden was high on my list of places to visit. Kindred spirits awaited, and I readied my Nikon to capture the café's organic spirit.

What the--? Full. My DS card was full.

Panic! What could I delete? How long did we have at this garden? Would I miss the experience by spending valuable minutes sorting through hundreds of images, deciding what to save and what to trash?

Then, a miracle—Family Dollar beckoned across the street, a glimmering ray of hope.

I sprinted away from the Bloggers, dodged traffic, and burst into the store like the madwoman I am. The lovely cashier led me to the aisle, where ONE DS card hung, as if fate decided to kindly throw me a bone for my poor planning.

Eight dollars later—and swearing that I will always carry a backup card everywhere I go—I rejoined the group.

And found an edible paradise.

OK, so maybe I'm overly excited about peas and kale.

Honestly, though, I was as delighted to talk with Melissa Metz, the garden manager, about the varieties of potatoes and peas she grows as many gardeners are to discuss the latest introductions of hybrid roses. We spent time chatting about the irrigation system, the compost, and a variety of purple peas she grew. 

(Purple peas? I've grown purple beans, but never purple peas. Must. Add.)

One of my challenges with our edible gardens is to make them not only functional but also aesthetically pleasing. Sunny Point Café's whimsical garden art added an attractive, warm, inviting atmosphere to the kitchen garden. Bright signage...

...cozy seating areas...

...and a friendly scarecrow-like mascot greeted garden guests.

Not only does Sunny Point Café provide homegrown produce for its guests, it also adopts environmentally friendly principles as part of its business model.

While we sampled biscotti and lemonade from the Café, I wished Sunny Point was our lunch destination. Although we didn't eat a meal at the Café, the snacks certainly enticed for a return visit. These are folks I'd love to break bread with while talking about heirloom tomatoes, fraise des bois, and crop rotation. 

Sexy stuff.

Still, Sunny Point Café served as an ideal, attainable garden. 

It's large--but not unmanageable. It's attractive without excessive fluff. It's inviting, warm, and the kind of place you'd like to settle in for a bit with a glass of lemonade to talk with other geeky edible gardeners who understand why it's so important to grow 80 varieties of heirloom tomatoes.

After all, not all gardeners want to debate the merits of the Florida Weave versus tomato cages.

Thinking about Sunny Point Café's garden, I checked on our own larger veggie garden tonight.

I have two more days to prepare for the Farm Tour.

I think we'll be ready.

(Just please, ignore the weeds.)

XO ~

Julie