Strawberry Season at Eckert’s Farms (plus bonus recipes)
I’ve written about Eckert’s Farms before when I went apple picking and did a wine tasting, so I added some bonus strawberry popsicle recipes to this post, but I don’t want to skip over the whole Pick Your Own Strawberries experience. But if you’re just in for the recipes, I won’t be offended, you can go straight to the recipe-only posts:
Refreshing Strawberry Lime Popsicles
Coconut Strawberry Blackberry Popsicles
Visiting Eckert’s Farms
Eckert’s Farms is a favorite for tourists and locals alike. It’s a family-owned and run farm, restaurant, and country store that is open year round. There are several “pick your own” seasons, including apples, pumpkins, strawberries, peaches, and even Christmas trees. If harvesting isn’t your thing, they have plenty of fresh produce for sale in the store, along with other sights and activities. Their restaurant features fresh food and recipes honed by the Eckert family throughout many generations. Their frozen custard is so popular that they sell it at a custard stand right next to the restaurant for anyone who just wants dessert. When the weather is nice there are free concerts, and when it’s not there are always indoor activities like cooking classes and wine tastings. They stand behind their motto of “always in season.”
Strawberry Season at Eckert’s Farms
Strawberries have always been my favorite fruit, so I was very excited that this year was was extra special for Eckert’s, as
they were celebrating 50 Years of Strawberries (their 50th anniversary of Pick Your Own Strawberries.) The day was sunny but not too hot, perfect for plucking juicy strawberries right off the vine. Before we loaded up on the tractor, we were offered boxes that I later learned were “half peck” boxes that held about 5 lbs of strawberries each. I insisted that my boyfriend, Pedro, take his own. I had a lot of recipes planned and wanted a lot of fruit to work with.
The strawberry fields are less expansive than the pumpkin rows and apple orchards I was used to seeing at Eckert’s, but there was still plenty of fruit to be picked. We splashed through mud and crouched down to peek through the leaves for bright red strawberries. It was fun at first but, I’ll admit, the whimsy of picking your own strawberries wears off after awhile because there is a lot of crouching down. However, we did have a good time calling out to each other anytime we found either a picture-perfect strawberry or a totally weird looking one. We also enjoyed watching people give up after only getting a couple dozen strawberries, or parents constantly chasing down their children who were spending more time in the mud than picking strawberries. We enjoyed it long enough to nearly fill two half pecks, which ended up being around 8 pounds of strawberries. I was pretty pleased, as you can see.
So what do you do with 8 pounds of strawberries?
Listen, there were plenty fo people who picked a pound or two then just had lunch at the restaurant or took their kids around the children’s area, but I had a mission. My mother is a professional baker and our baking traditions, such as our annual cookie weekend, have instilled a love of baking within me. Recently, I have been on an incredibly restrictive diet at y doctor’s request (health issues are the worst), so all of my usual recipes were out. So, I started off by altering some that I had found online such as this Grain, Dairy, Gluten Free Strawberry Shortcake, Strawberry Jam, and some simple coconut milk tapioca pudding topped with fresh strawberries. I was trying to decide on a recipe that I could play around with and make my own, and then it came to me: POPSICLES.
I live for hot, sunny weather – frozen treats are important.
I decided to make three different kinds, ranging from “light, refreshing, and sugar free” to “rich and creamy” with a one flavor hovering in the middle. All three recipes are completely grain, gluten, dairy, corn, and soy free! Two of them are completely sugar free as well, so if you are Paleo or Whole 30 Compliant, the first two will work for you. All of them have been taste tested and I can promise you, they are delicious.
Refreshing Strawberry Lime Popsicles
These are the lightest AND the easiest to make. You’ll only need 3 ingredients – Strawberries, lime, and coconut 
water.
Coconut Strawberry Blackberry Popsicles
Only 4 ingredients! All you’ll need is coconut milk, strawberries, blackberries, and maple syrup if you want to make them a little sweeter, but you can easily leave that out if you want.
Strawberry Coconut Vegan Pudding Pops
As an ice cream lover, I was most excited and worried about these. I wanted them to be extra creamy but also wantedto keep them 100% vegan. I did some experimenting and I was very happy with the result. This recipe has a few more ingredients and steps compared to the other two, but you definitely don’t need to be amazing in the kitchen to make these. If you crave a ice cream/pudding texture, these are totally worth the time and effort.
