Strawberries!

Yesterday I found little strawberry plants at Wal-mart. I have had strawberry plants before, but they only made a few strawberries. Still, we enjoyed them. Then one day I met a man at the farmer's market who was selling strawberry plants. He explained how strawberry plants like sandy soil. So I'm going to add lots of sand to a little skinny flower bed around the bay windows. I planted flower seeds there a week or two ago and they didn't make it. So this will be plan B for that bare little bed. And I feel a little better about this choice, since I know strawberries have grown well before. I have pretty limited gardening experience. Mr. P is the master gardener and canner around here. Hopefully I can get the right soil mix and they will thrive because I would love to can some strawberry syrup. Which brings me to a simple recipe to top your Saturday morning pancake or waffle. It can be made with refined sugar, but I opted not to. If using granulated sugar, the amount is 1/2 c.

In a blender:

2 cups red ripe strawberries, washed and hulled

1/4 c maple syrup

1/2 t vanilla extract

Blend until smooth. This will make a thick strawberry purée or syrup type topping. I think sugar gives a more syrup consistency.