This Orange-Strawberry Spritzer is one gorgeous looking and tasting non-alcoholic party drink. A perfect spring sipper.
Last weekend I had the most amazing experience of going to a local Strawberry Farm and handpick some fresh strawberries! I have lived in Florida for nearly six years now but I kicked myself hard for not having done this earlier! Seriously! It was such a rewarding experience that I made a promise to myself that I will go for all possible local picking events not just to help the local farmers but also for the overall experience. There is an unexplained pleasure in eating fruits and vegetables that you have handpicked. The feeling is even more when you have grown them in your backyard. But I still have some time for that to happen. Meanwhile, I can at-least visit more such farms and pick some strawberries, blueberries, lemons, oranges or any other fruit/vegetable being grown here.
Actually, some of my friends were taking their kids for this activity and I just decided to join them impromptu. Thankfully the Florida weather cooperated with us and gave us a brisk sunny morning! Having never done strawberry picking before, I thought they grew on trees and all the while was wondering how on earth are we going to pluck them. On reaching the farm, I was delighted to see that strawberry plants are like shrubs.
I was as excited as my friend’s kids and we all eagerly marched towards the farm with cartons in our hand. Jut the sight of bright red strawberries hanging on the plant got me excited. Pretty soon all of us had filled our cartons with some insane amounts of berries but no one was complaining. All my girlfriends joked that we have so many strawberries now that it looks like that is what we will be cooking for the next few weeks! But seriously, I had not seen such strawberries before! What I really liked about these farm fruit apart from the fact that they were super-duper cheap was, they were sweeter, juicier and huge in comparison to the ones available at the grocery stores. Even the color looked perfect! I am going Orange picking next! Just one tip – Please wash these fruits thoroughly in warm running water to ward o all the pesticides and dirt!
I was all excited when I got home and was showing the produce to KR. But there were also many thoughts running on my mind as to how to use these delicious strawberries in my kitchen. I even asked my Insta family for suggestions on my story and here are some of the suggestions that I got – Strawberry Ice Cream, Strawberry Cheesecake, Strawberry Salsa, Strawberry Smoothie and even a Strawberry Rasam! I had never heard of Strawberry Rasam and now I am definitely intrigued to know more on that. Since I went overboard and had got a couple of pounds of these berries, I am sure I can try each of these recipes in my kitchen using them. I have frozen a big carton for now till I decide what to make next. For now it was time to test a small batch of my most tried and tested fruit juice!
Tropical Orange Strawberry Spritzer! I have making and enjoying this drink for some years now. I have served this to my guests and always end up getting loads of compliments for it!