Field to plate: Direct to the table
AS WITH most produce, you can buy strawberries all year round these days. But there's something about the in-season English variety that makes it very special.
It's a sure sign that summer is here, conjuring images of warm afternoons and generations of English tennis hopefuls making ignominious early exits at Wimbledon.
It doesn't happen all at once, through. The British strawberry season starts in early May in Cornwall, travels through Somerset and across as far as Kent, and then works its way north to Scotland before returning to the South West for a second harvest in late August or September.
This, as you might imagine, turns into a bit of a scavenger hunt for suppliers looking to keep customers topped up with the fresh strawberries for as long as the season lasts.
This year sees Brakes launch a pilot scheme in Cornwall, offering the first pick of locally grown Elsanta strawberries to pubs buying from its Bodmin depot. If it all goes well, the company will expand the scheme to other regions as the season progresses.
Heidi Easby, Brakes' commercial director, says: "This is true local sourcing of a key product at the best time of year, which in turn has the added advantage of reducing food miles.
"Publicans who buy our strawberries have complete confidence - they know exactly where their strawberries are from, they will arrive in the best condition and have the satisfaction that they are using locally grown fruit and supporting local businesses. What's more they can add value to their menus by highlighting seasonal, locally sourced ingredients."
Called Brakes 'First Pick' Cornish Strawberries, the berries are grown by Neil Hosking on a 160-hectare farm in Gwithian near Hayle in South West Cornwall.
The Hosking family has run the farm for over 50 years and Neil, who is a third generation grower, is confident that he is producing the earliest, freshest and tastiest strawberries.
Grown using the tabletop method, which keeps the berries off the ground, reducing pests and increasing cleanliness, the strawberries are harvested every morning and taken directly to the Bodmin depot. Customers placing their order by 4pm will receive freshly picked strawberries the next day.
Neil says: "This is a much more direct way of getting my strawberries to market. We start picking at first light and by the end of the day they are delivered into the depot and ready to go out the next morning, which keeps the freshness going. I'm really chuffed to be supplying local pubs with great tasting strawberries as early as we can."
The aim is to have the first pick of strawberries available by mid-May although Neil was carefully watching the weather when we spoke, with a view to harvesting early.
"At the moment it looks like we might start a week to 10 days earlier, which is great as it means we can start supplying customers even earlier.
"But it's amazing how quickly things can change and even a slight drop in temperature could set it all back again," he explains.
Licensee Ameena Williams has recently opened her second pub in Cornwall, the Hop and Vine steak and ale House in St Austell. The new menu will feature Cornish strawberries.
Ameena says: "We always aim to use locally sourced fresh produce on our menus, although just as important is produce that we can get to our business easily.
"The local strawberries from Brakes suit our needs perfectly as we know they are Cornish and they are delivered directly to us."
