The cookbook "Florida Strawberries: A Taste of Summer All Winter Long" will be available in March.
In March, local strawberry growers may see a surge of berries sprouting up across their fields because of an unusually warm season. But those extra berries will go to good use. This year, the Florida Strawberry Festival and the Florida Strawberry Growers Association have teamed up to create a hardback, strawberry-filled recipe book.
The book, “Florida Strawberries: A Taste of Summer All Winter Long,” will be sold to the public beginning on the first day of the festival, March 3.
The cookbook was produced for free by Hoffman Media, a woman’s interest and lifestyle publisher, in exchange for the festival and the Florida Strawberry Growers Association each purchasing 2,000 copies of the book.
Paul Davis, Florida Strawberry Festival General Manager, suspects that the books will go fast. He plans on buying the first five copies for his family members.
“We’re thrilled to be partnered with the growers,” Davis said. “Without the growers, we couldn’t celebrate the harvest.”
The cookbook, which sells for $24.95, features over 70 strawberry-centered recipes on over 160 pages. The book is filled with full-photo pages, all in color, next to a corresponding recipe from Taste of the South magazine, part of Hoffman Media.
The book was produced as a result of efforts by Sue Harrell, known to festival attendees and Plant City locals as “Strawberry Sue.”
Harrell, who has been the marketing director for the association since 2007, frequently attends food and wine
FAVORITE RECIPE
“I’ve tried the strawberry salad. I want to try the strawberry almond upside down cake.”
— Paul Davis, festival manager
conferences and trade shows. She noticed the need for a unique, industry-related cookbook.
The Florida Strawberry Growers Association produces its own recipe book every four to five years, but nothing of this caliber, while the festival produces a spiral-bound one every year.
FAVORITE RECIPE
“The Floridian-style strawberry shrimp ceviche.”
— Sue Harrell, Florida Strawberry Growers Association director of marketing
The new visually-focused, joint-venture cookbook will be somewhat of a collector’s item, as it is not something that will be done annually.
“Our industry just hasn’t had anything like this,” Harrell said. “We’re just kind of really targeting that audience.”
The Florida Growers Association will be selling copies of the cookbook, and festival goers will be able to buy them from the Neighborhood Village in March.
Contact Emily Topper at etopper@plantcityobserver.com.
