Welcome to our unique farm – Mad Hatter’s Strawberries
A small arable farmer, and jack-of-all-trades most of the time, I grow milling wheat, oats, oilseed rape, potatoes, and a small area of strawberries.
When I took the farm on in 2009, the previous tenants had left 2 polytunnels – I bought them and there was born Mad Hatter’s Strawberries. I have been growing, picking and distributing strawberries for almost 8 years now and it’s a constant learning curve.
I think it’s a great shame that many of us have forgotten how good fresh fruit and vegetables should taste because they are harvested before they are ripe and then transported across the country. The closer you can get to eating produce to when it was harvested the better the taste in my humble opinion.
Only sweet ripe strawberries are picked directly into the punnets to guarantee the perfect sweetness and smell. They are delivered to my customers either later the same day or by 9.30am in the morning. And are also available from Mad Hatters Campsite near Ely.
The planting, caring, picking and distributing is all done by myself with the odd bit of help (free of charge) from my daughters (slave labour), husband, parents, aunt and uncle and anyone else that feels the need.
The process – tray plants arrive frozen from the wholesaler in January/ February – I leave them for 1 to 2 days to defrost before planting into grow bags. The polytunnels help keep the strawberries warm in the winter, they also get a fleecy blanket tucked around them in February. Once the sun starts to shine, the tunnel warms up to encourage early fruiting.
Elsanta was the main variety that I have grown, but I have recently tried Malling Centenary.
Every other year the plants are taken out and new ones planted in fresh grow bags. It always feels like a terrible waste as these plants will keep fruiting, our garden is full of old strawberry plants.
For those budding strawberry growers with balconies, patios, greenhouses or anywhere outside, I sell strawberry plants in 1m grow bags with 8 strawberry plants planted ready to take away and enjoy.
Available at the end of June – September
£10 each bag
STRAWBERRY JAM
It’s really really really simple!
800g strawberries, rinsed, pat dry with kitchen towel and tip into a large saucepan, Add 1kg bag of pectin jam sugar, stir with wooden spoon add a Few drops of lemon juice, sometimes I add a slice or 2 of apple as well
Simmer slowly – when a white foam forms around the edges, take a cold spoon, skim a little of the liquid from the saucepan. Let it cool, then if the liquid crinkles on the top when you touch it, it is ready, otherwise keep slowly simmering, and keep trying the cold spoon.
SMOOTHIE
I use the following recipe at home and for the Farmers markets.My girls love it, (and so do I). You can reduce the sugar content to individual taste, but I’ve found the following recipe hits the spot the best…
2 mugs of Frozen strawberries preferably, naturally sweet ones, I rinse them in water, take out the hull and freeze on a tray. Once frozen I transfer them to a freezer bag so they don’t take up so much space.
2 level teaspoons of sugar 1 mug of spring water
Place contents in a blender until no more lumps, and serve immediately. You can replace the water with milk, or vanilla ice cream for a strawberry thick shake.
