Strawberry turkeys, reindeer and more

Local strawberries make the holiday even sweeter

By LINDA CHION KENNEY

Live from Hillsborough County, “Strawberry Sue” is busy in Dover transforming strawberries into holiday treats that promote the berry behind the work of the Florida Strawberry Growers Association.

The cause is to promote the strawberry, the only fruit that wears its seeds on the outside. Grown from runners, not seeds, and a member of the rose family, the strawberry is rich in vitamin C and puts Florida on the map as the second-largest strawberry-producing state in the nation.

With roughly 10,000 acres grown in the Greater Plant City area alone, eastern Hillsborough County earns its billing as the “Winter Strawberry Capital of the World.” To celebrate the strawberry harvest, the 11-day Florida Strawberry Festival is set to open March 4 for its 86th year.

But forget all that for now.

It’s the holidays and Sue Harrell, also known as Strawberry Sue, is finding a new way to promote strawberries. Typically this time of the year, in her overriding role as FSGA’s director of marketing, Harrell would be touting the attributes of the strawberry at trade shows and festivals.

But with the newest wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, Harrell is back in the kitchen at FSGA headquarters, safely behind the camera, creating and hosting videos and Zoom meetings that show how insanely easy it is to transform a strawberry into a turkey.

Or, into a reindeer.

Or, into ornaments on a Christmas tree.

Or, coming soon, into a Grinch.

“We might as well do it live,” said Harrell, shortly after her Dec. 1 live Zoom meeting, where she made a reindeer out of pretzel sticks, candy eyeballs and melted brown and white chocolate.

Off camera she demonstrated, as well, the prior week’s filming, which involved cutting mini-marshmallows in two, wrapping them around the ends of two pretzel sticks and then dipping the ends into melted milk chocolate. Placing them on either side of the strawberry, she waited for the chocolate to set before dipping the whole strawberry back into chocolate, this time up to the calyx, which is what they call the berry’s crown of green leaves. A quick dip into white chocolate added a smooth finish to the pretzel turkey legs.

Meanwhile, on the workspace off to the side sat a half-created Christmas tree, set for the Dec. 8 Zoom session. Creation starts with a green cone, purchased at a craft store, around which kale lettuce is attached with toothpicks, ready to spear the ensuing strawberry “ornaments.” The completed side of the cone featured “snow berries” (strawberries half-dipped in white chocolate), with the backside reserved for berries dipped in milk or dark chocolate.

“Nutritious and delicious,” Harrell calls her strawberry creations, which throughout the year includes pirate strawberries for Gasparilla and pumpkin, spider and ghost strawberries for Halloween.

Behind the camera for the Dec. 1 reindeer strawberry taping was Tiffany Dale, director of member services for FSGA. She said the association has roughly 50 farm members and about 200 industry members, interested in networking and doing business with or supporting growers.

A major membership benefit is the association’s relationship with the University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (UF/IFAS), which works to create new varieties of fruits. Members are allowed to give input and test-grow the upcoming varieties in their fields. With patent secured, FSGA members get first crack at producing the new fruit variety before it becomes available to other commercial growers.

One such up-and-coming variety is the white strawberry, which Harrell had in her kitchen Dec. 1, fresh from the field outside FSGA headquarters, where UF/IFAS has a research field.

“The novelty fruit is a new variety this year,” Harrell said. “We’re the only ones who can have it right now.” The berry has a white-rose blush “and never gets too big,” Harrell added. “When the seeds are red, they’re ripe to pick.”

The wife of a strawberry farmer, Harrell is no stranger to strawberries, having picked them as a youngster in Indiana with her family. A former FSGA board member, Harrell has been involved in all facets of the business, from growing to shipping to marketing. This month she celebrated her 44th wedding anniversary with Mark Harrell, a man she met on a blind date in high school.

“That’s how I got into the industry side of it,” Sue Harrell said. “I married a farmer.”

To view Harrell’s videos, visit the Florida Strawberry Growers Association on Facebook or online at www.floridastrawberry.org. The FSGA also has a cookbook on sale, “Florida Strawberries: A Taste of Summer All Winter Long,” and a coloring book for kids entitled, “Jammer & the Florida Strawberries,” featuring the FSGA mascot Harrell created, along with his girlfriend, Calyx, and their best “bee” friend, Polly Nator.

FSGA is at 13138 Lewis Gallagher Road, Dover. Call: 813-752-6822.