Strawberries are at their best this time of year. Julius Jaspers, known as a chef, jury member and cookbook author, loves food and likes to talk about it in his podcast Julius’ Pantry. Strawberries take him back to his childhood. How does he make sure he gets the most out of a fresh crop of summer wrens?
Thinking of strawberries, Julius Jaspers sees meadows and vegetable gardens from his childhood. “I grew up between Abcoude, Vinkeveen and Ouderkerk aan den Amstel”, he muses. “My parents had an advertising agency in Amsterdam and wanted to live outside the city. We lived in a farmer’s house against the dike, with only farms around us, like those of uncle Willem and aunt Nel. They had a vegetable garden. When summer came, it was party time.”
Little Julius held up his cap and got a few handfuls of strawberries from the vegetable garden in his hat. ,, Then I ran home and ate them mashed with white sandwiches. I’ve never eaten them so well. That’s where my love comes from.” Jaspers still likes to eat the red summer fruit. “I was at the wholesaler today and bought a lot. With nothing on it.” He also likes spicy, with chili. “And balsamic vinegar, also very tasty.”
Jaspers tells more about strawberries in his podcast Julius’ Pantry. Of episode can be found on Spotify. ,,In my podcast every Friday I talk about a product for about six to seven minutes: about the memories I have of it and then about the history. And then a bit about what you can do with it. I close each episode with a recipe that you can find on my site.”
The first strawberries were the wild strawberries: round, small and less sweet than we know
Julius Jaspers
Fragile strawberry deserves care and attention
Strawberries are now in season, which runs from May to September. “In a few weeks they will come off the cold ground. The tastiest variety is Lambada, which is widely grown here. You also have the Gariguette, a French strain from Provence. They sell them there in wooden chip baskets.” The fragile strawberry deserves attention and care, also when it comes to packaging. “People are very careful with raspberries, but they stack strawberries three on top of each other.”
The strawberry grows all over the world, but these are not the strawberries that we buy in the store or from the farmer. “The first strawberries were the wild strawberries: round, small and less sweet than those we know.” The Romans loved it for its medicinal power, but they didn’t find it worthwhile cultivating. “The Frenchman Amédée-Francois Frézier, who brought a larger strawberry from Chile, is at the cradle of strawberry cultivation. Not that that went well. In addition to female plants, it turned out that male plants were also needed.”
Here are Julius’ best tips and facts about strawberries:
1. A container from the supermarket can be kept for up to a week. This is because the strawberries were picked immature. You can keep those from the country for three days, because they are ripe when they end up in a container.
2. Remove strawberries quickly from the plastic and store in an airy place at room temperature. Not in the fridge, because then you lose a lot of flavor. And you will never see it again. Leave the crowns on. Eat them as soon as possible after washing and de-crowning.
3. Most of the flavor is said to be in the tip of the strawberry, as the sugar sinks down through gravity.
Wendy sold the best strawberries in the Netherlands last summer, as witnessed by her sublime score (video):
This article was previously published and updated to reflect current events.
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