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This year is different from last year, which was early. The colder wetter weather means things have been slower to start.

You should see the first of our berries hitting New Worlds and Pack’n'Saves in the upper North Island on Friday.

• 250g Home made or store bought puff pastry
• 250ml  whipping cream
• Icing sugar
• Strawberries

Method

1. Pre heat oven to 200 degrees centigrade and line two baking sheets with greaseproof paper.
2. Roll out the puff pastry to 1/4 inch thick and cut out rectangles 10cm x 5cm or whatever size you would prefer (don’t forget it shrinks a bit with cooking), just ensure that they are all equal sizes in order to layer them on top of each other.
3. Dock the pastry so it doesn’t rise too much and stays even.
4. Bake for 15-20mins or until golden brown
5. Once cooked allow to cool before layering with strawberries and cream.
6. Whip the cream to firm peaks and slice the strawberries (you can add a tablespoon of icing sugar to you cream before whipping if you prefer it sweet).
7. To layer, take one slice of pastry and pipe cream along it, layer with strawberries and then dust with icing sugar. Repeat layering again and then finish with a third slice of puff pastry and and dust the final layer with icing sugar.
8. Keep in fridge until ready to serve but remember, the longer they are in the fridge the pastry will absorb the cream and soften. Enjoy!

Currently the main volume we have had can be attributed to the newer Ventana variety. This is a large pointy ended berry and is a good early cropper. The more traditional variety Camarosa has been affected by the cold overcast weather and volumes from this variety have been poor with a lot of berry being rejected through grading.

The downside of the good Ventana production – which doesn’t do so well in December – is that the longer the current cool overcast weather continues, the more likely that there will be poor production in that important Christmas week period.

Ingredients

• 200g strawberries
• 20g sugar
• 400ml Greek yoghurt

Method

1. Blend the strawberries & sugar together and put into a pan. Keep 2 large strawberries aside.
2. Bring strawberries to the boil and then turn the heat off, stir to ensure the sugar has dissolved.
3. Chill strawberry mix in fridge until completely cold.
4. Finely dice the two left over strawberries.
5. Mix together the yoghurt, strawberry sauce and finely diced strawberries and transfer into the ice cream maker and process according to manufacturers instructions.

Ingredients – chocolate pastry

• 110g Butter
• 180g flour
• 60g icing sugar
• 1 tbsp cocoa
• 1 egg

Ingredients – tart filling

• 200g 70% cocoa chocolate, chopped
• 150 ml whipping cream
• 250g strawberries, hulled & sliced
• Additional whipped cream for decorating
• Chocolate shavings for decoration

Method – pastry

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees centigrade.
2. Grease and flour a loose bottom, 22cm, flan tin.
3. Place the flour, butter, sugar, cocoa in a bowl.
4. Work the ingredients together until the mixture looks like breadcrumbs.
5. Add the egg and bring dough together.
6. Rest dough in fridge for an hour before rolling out.
7. Roll out pastry to fit bottom & sides of tin, prick bottom of pastry case.
8. Place a piece of greaseproof paper over the bottom and sides of the pastry shell and fill the case with dry beans, rice or lentils.
9. Place the tart shell in the over with the dried beans and bake ‘blind the shell for 15 minutes.
10. Remove from the oven and remove the greaseproof paper and beans and return the pastry to the oven.
11. Bake for a further 10 minutes.
12. The first baking with the beans is to prevent the pastry side slipping down with no filling in the case. The second baking is to crisp the shell.
13. Allow to cool.

Method – tart filling

1. Bring cream to almost boiling point.
2. Add chopped chocolate and stir gently until melted and silky smooth.
3. Pour into cooled tart cases and allow to cool and set before decorating.
4. Decorate with sliced strawberries, whipped cream & chocolate.

For more recipes from this Blogger/Chef, please visit Peasepudding.

The last few weeks weather hit strawberry production as the cold and wet damaged berries that were supposed to be picked now. As quality dropped, the amount of second grade berries soared, meaning there were less on the market.

The great news is, that although it’s still cool, the sun is here and everything is drying out, and there are lots of beautiful berries turning red and ripe!

By late next week the season will be in full swing, so look out for all those juicy red strawberries hitting the shelves.

The cold winds from the south have slowed the growing in the fields, and the wet and rain have meant there is little sunshine there to help the strawberries ripen up.

Colder weather now means it’ll be a few weeks before things really pick up, so hopefully this will be in time for the Labour Weekend holiday towards the end of the month.

The current crop is early season and so some of the berries out there are a bit green, in some brands cases too green.

Strawberries with more than 20% green/white shoulders (the part near the calyx) will not be very sweet and a bit crunchy. Ideally look for berries with as little green shoulder as possible.

The season will be in full swing around Labour Weekend.

Although there is a while to go yet, and weather patterns could change or delay things, based on what our growers are currently seeing in the field a normal start to the season is expected.

Plants are looking healthy and the first set of flower has appeared – although this is removed.

Check back here for updates.