Strawberry tops are edible!

Yesterday we bought this year's first strawberries! It's almost like a milestone each year; a sign that spring has really begun. I must say that I'm not the biggest  fan of winters, even though we do have relatively mild winters. For me, the warmer the better! Yes, I know that in northern Europe strawberries are a summer fruit, but where we live it's a late winter/early spring (until mid-spring) fruit. You'll find no strawberries during the summer here. So delicious, defenitely one of our favourite fruits. And something that reminds me of spring! 

As someone really against waste of all kinds, I knew I had to share a bit about making the most of strawberries. Fortunately, strawberries don't consist of a lot of peels/seemingly un-edible parts etc. So most of the fruit is eaten as is. Most people, however, don't know that the strawberry tops are edible, too. I didn't know this a few years ago either! Why is it so that these things are unknown to so many people? Such a missed opportunity. Not only are they edible, they're quite healthy too- I'm not sure anymore but I've read things about antioxidants, possible regulating blood sugar, possible lowering the risks of heart disease, and vitamin c, among other things. If you don't like the idea of eating the tops as is when you're eating a strawberry, there's still some other options. 

Last year, I dehydrated most of the tops, allowing them to stay shelf stable for a long time. I mainly use this for herbal tea. Strawberry top tea really tastes good! If you don't like dehydrating, you can freeze them too. Also, I've read that some people add the tops to smoothies. I'm not a smoothie fan so I haven't tried this. When fresh, they're good to add to salads, just like you'd do with other leafy greens. Apparently, they even have anti itch properties, which I'm yet to try, so not sure if that's true. 

Strawberry hulls are another part that is usually discarded. We usually feed them to our tortoises (we have a few pet turtoises), because they really love fruits. If there's a lot of hulls, like when you're making jam, you can try making strawberry juice/syrup by boiling the hulls in water and then adding some sugar (and letting the water evaporate in case you're making syrup). I do this with a lot of fruit peels/scraps and it always turns out so good. Other things that I've read about, but yet to try with the strawberry hulls: a water infusion and vinegar.