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10 Ways to Use Strawberry Tops + Greens

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Never waste a strawberry top again! Strawberry tops are good for so many things like teas, powders, and more! And there’s no point in getting rid of the greens – they’re great, too!

Bottle of strawberry syrup, A stack of strawberries in a metal container, a bottle of strawberry syrup, and a jar of strawberry-infused vinegar.

Too often, when doing large or small strawberry preservation projects, we look at the tops as a nuisance and then toss them. Don’t!

Psst..don’t toss those cherry stems and pits, either!

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Most people don’t even realize that the greens on strawberries are completely edible!

So whether you’re dehydrating strawberries, canning, or freezing them, you can save those tops for one of the following uses!

And are you worried about washing one of the ‘dirty-dozen’? The USDA says that simply washing with water is enough. But you can use a 50:50 vinegar/water soak if you’d like.

10 Ways to Use Strawberry Tops

So here are some ways to reduce the waste in your kitchen and use those tops of strawberries!

Strawberry-Infused Vinegar

While you can create fruit scrap vinegar from strawberry tops, this idea makes strawberry-infused vinegar easier. And it’s perfect for creating vinaigrettes, shrubs for cocktails, putting into seltzer water for refreshing drinks, and more.

Instructions:

  1. Stuff a jar full of fresh strawberry tops.
  2. Fill the jar with white vinegar (you can also experiment and use rice wine vinegar, etc.)
  3. Place lid on jar.
  4. Put into the fridge for a few days to steep.

Uses:

  • Make strawberry vinaigrettes for salads. Just replace the vinegar called for with strawberry vinegar and enjoy a refreshing change!
  • Make shrubs for cocktails.
  • Add a little to your favorite seltzer water.

Watch Me Make It

Green Powder

If you’ve hulled the strawberry (I use this handy strawberry huller), and have mostly green tops left, you can dry them, then add strawberry tops to green powder.

It is a great way to use dark leafy greens, but you can add your strawberry tops to the mix! Even if strawberry flesh is attached, it does not add much sweet flavor to affect the taste of the green powder in your savory meals!

Directions:

  1. Top strawberries (I love using this strawberry huller to make things easier).
  2. Place on dehydrator trays
  3. Dry at 95°F/35°C until crunchy and breaks easily
  4. Powder in a coffee grinder or bullet blender, or large blender.
  5. Store.
  6. Add a teaspoon or more to any savory meal, smoothies, etc.

Darcy’s Tip:

Instead of powdering, you can leave the tops dried as they are to give as treats to indoor animals like rabbits, or use to brew in hot tea.

Simple Strawberry Vinaigrette

This quick and easy vinaigrette will make summer salads lovely!

Ingredients:

  • 1/4 cup strawberry-infused vinegar
  • 2 Tablespoons olive oil
  • 1 tablespoon honey if you prefer it a little on the sweeter side; adjust as you need.
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1/4 teaspoon pepper

Directions:

  1. Mix all ingredients into a bullet blender or blender until fully processed
  2. Refrigerate until ready to use. Store in an airtight container for about a week.

Serve:

  • Serve on a dark leafy green salad with strawberry pieces and shredded parmesan for some salty highlights;
  • Use to create a fruit salad with berries, bananas, and orange slices;
  • Marinade chicken;
  • Use with pasta salad, olives, and feta cheese.

Strawberry Simple Syrup

Ingredients

  • 3 Cups Strawberry Tops
  • 1 Cup Water
  • 1 Cup Sugar
  • Lemon juice, optional

Directions:

  1. Bring all ingredients to a boil in a saucepan on medium-high heat
  2. Once boiling for five minutes or so, decrease the temperature to simmer
  3. Simmer for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.
  4. Add 1/2 teaspoon lemon juice if desired to brighten flavor.
  5. Strain through a fine mesh strainer or colander, making sure not to try to press out the juice as it can turn the syrup cloudy.
  6. Allow the syrup to cool, then store it in an airtight container in the fridge for a week or so.

Uses:

  • Flavor tea
  • Use in lemonade to make Strawberry lemonade
  • Use to make cocktails
  • Make strawberry milk

Strawberry Top Tea

While you can toss the tops of strawberries into your favorite tea to steep, adding some interesting ingredients will elevate it to something extra special!

If you haven’t tried it, Harney and Sons Parish tea is my new favorite!

Ingredients

  • 3-5 Strawberry Tops per cup; Use dry tops if you have dehydrated them; they will need a little more time to steep.
  • 1 teaspoon fresh herbs of your choice (mint, basil, lemon balm, etc.)
  • Water
  • Sweetener if desired

Directions

  1. Add five or more strawberry tops to a mug. A large mug needs more tops!
  2. Add a few leaves of fresh herb(s) of your choice.
  3. Pour boiling water into the mug.
  4. Steep for 5-10 minutes.
  5. Add the sweetener of your choice.

Strawberry Extract

Instructions

  1. Rinse and pat dry strawberries.
  2. Discard the stems.
  3. Slice the strawberries.
  4. Place strawberries in quart size canning jar. 
  5. Fill jar with Everclear (faster extract) or vodka, ensuring the strawberries are fully submerged.
  6. Cover with a canning jar lid and ring.
  7. Allow strawberries to extract for 3 months; store longer for a stronger flavor
  8. Strain the remaining strawberries (they will be mushy) and compost.
  9. Pour into your favorite jars to store or give away!

Strawberry Salsa

While this strawberry salsa recipe by Vitamix uses whole strawberries, you can save extra tops to help create this mix!

Infused Water

You can add extra flavor, vitamins, and minerals by putting a few strawberry tops into water. If you use dried strawberry tops, give them plenty of time to infuse your water as they take a little while to rehydrate and release their goodness!

Strawberry Top Ice Cubes

Freeze them first, and have strawberry ice cubes to add to tea and water! As they defrost, they’ll infuse your drink with strawberry goodness!

You can remove the greens (and don’t forget to dry the strawberry greens for green powder!) and flash-freeze the strawberry tops. Then store in an airtight container in your freezer.

What is flash freezing?

Flash freezing is a way of individually freezing items so they don’t stick together when stored in the freezer. This stops fruits from freezing in one mass group.

  1. Place strawberry tops in a single layer on a baking or cookie sheet.
  2. Put the baking sheet into the freezer overnight.
  3. Place strawberry tops into an airtight container and return them to the freezer.

Animals

Whether you have chickens, rabbits, or guinea pigs, these are a good treat. We dehydrate the tops to give to our rabbit but do so sparingly. We also give her fresh, but she enjoys the dehydrated ones when we don’t have fresh ones.

If you feed your pet dehydrated foods, do it in small quantities (or as prescribed for the particular animal and make water readily available).

Compost

Compost is not a waste of any food that we use unless you never use the compost and let it rot. It’s feeding the food that feeds us – the perfect recycling triangle!

More Strawberry for You!

Whether using strawberry powder, dehydrated strawberries, or pureed strawberries, these treats will make you happy!

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2 Comments

  1. Fantastic! Love the sound of strawberry flavoured tea, I have never thought of making vinegar flavoured with strawberries either. Thanks for the great ideas and recipes🤗

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