Strawberry Season is Strawberry Vinegar Season
Although I’ve tinkered with fruit scrap vinegars, even pineapple made from the rind, there isn’t enough bright red berry flavor from grassy green tops of strawberry. Although I’ve followed the trend to just use the calyx, it's unparalleled compared to using the whole juicy fruit.
Way up the coast of Maine, near the Canadian border in Washington County, Josh Pond, an organic 150-acre hand-harvested blueberry farm, produces enough strawberries to make a spectacular strawberry vinegar, composed of a blend of Sparkle, Galletta, and Early Glow varieties. The farm’s resident cheese and vinegar maker, Sean Fitzpatrick, says he started the vinegar project in order to keep up with surplus. “We tend to produce more fruit than we can sell each spring — we only sell our strawberries at market locally.”
Some went into preserves, but with the rest, Fitzpatrick loaded them into a juice press, and pitched in some yeast and a SCOBY in from previous batches of apple cider and blueberry vinegars. Completely under air lock, Fitzpatrick lets the strawberry juice go through double fermentation, at least until the pH drops to an appropriate level and there’s sufficient acidity to bottle. Josh Pond is an organic farm, its fruit is never sprayed; Fitzpatrick presumes this is what allows for “a healthy and robust surface microbiology, yielding really consistent fermentations … Almost every batch so far has given us really bright acidity and strong, clean, fruit-forward flavors.” His move is to splash some of the strawberry vinegar into seltzer with ice or to use it in a cocktail like a gimlet.
Further south in Maine, just northeast of Portland, Brad Messier of West Maquoit Vinegar Works in Brunswick makes a strawberry that’s infused with mint! Vibrant and refreshing, Messier hydro presses (a precision machine that uses pressurized fluid to create an immense force) peak season strawberries he gets from Goranson Farm in Dresden, ME, only using fresh fruit, distilled water and yeast (“and sometimes a touch of honey if the berries need a little sugar boost,” says Messier) to first make the strawberry wine.
photo by Elana Beal
“We’re not too fussy about removing every stem and leaf,” Messier mentions, “a handful make it into the ferment to help provide tannin and subtle structure in the finished vinegar.” Fresh garden mint is added during both the wine stage and again during the natural fermentation into vinegar, which layers the flavor and keeps the mint bright and herbal. Still, mint plays a subtle, supporting role, as the vinegar is really all about the strawberries. “In general, we try to approach flavors with a bit of a natural twist or unexpected angle,” Messier says. The vinegar’s great in shrubs and even frozen fruit popsicles, which have become a West Maquiot customer's favorite.
Another strawberry season favorite of mine comes from Greek food brand Kosterina. The idea came to founder Katina Mountanos during the height of the apple cider vinegar craze. “People were clearly craving the health benefits, but let’s be honest, apple cider vinegar tastes terrible,” she says. “I wanted to create something you’d actually look forward to drinking.”. Kosterina’s Crushed Strawberry Vinegar is made of three ingredients: strawberry purée, white cooked grape must (imported from Italy), and white wine vinegar (imported from Greece). “The goal was to nail that perfect balance: tangy, but with a natural sweetness that makes it genuinely pleasurable”.
Mountanos considers her Crushed Strawberry Vinegar has many qualities of an ACV shot (Kosterina even makes single serving packs) — supporting blood sugar stabilization, glucose management, and satiety. It was also a play towards those people looking to consume less alcohol but who still want something interesting and elevated in their glass. “It’s all the sophistication of a crafted cocktail, none of the alcohol, and a lot more functional (health) benefits." Mounstanos loved the strawberry so much that she expanded the line with a bright and floral tangerine version, and a deep and earthy blueberry one as well.
Just remember, as the glow of strawberry season asides, reverting back to plastic clamshell containers rather than the pale green paper pulp pints, you’ll point back to when you preserved a flavor to make summer last forever.