It's Strawberry Time - WMDT 47 News - Delmarva's Choice

Salisbury, MD. Strawberries and Strawberry Festivals present some of the finest eating opportunities found anywhere on Delmarva!

The Gardening Grannies respectfully suggest that, if you can squeeze one more event into your Memorial Day weekend, you consider making it the 32nd Annual Strawberry Festival and Parade in Ridgely on Sunday. Ridgely is located in Caroline County, not far from Denton. The Ridgely Strawberry Festival, hosted by the Ridgely Lions Club, is one of those wonderful events that doesn't charge for admission, so if you can only come for a half hour, you can check out some of the crafts, scarf down some strawberries, shortcake and ice cream and be on your way without silently regretting paying an admission fee.

On the other hand, if you can make it a day, you might consider some or all of the following:

9AM Strawberry Chase 5K Fun/Walk (registration begins at 8AM)

9AM Tennis Tournament begins 9AM Vendor and Craft Booths Open

9AM Church Services & Worship

10AM Strawberry Shortcake booth & Beer Wagon open

10:30 Local bands begin to play 

Noon  Strawberry Festival Parade begins

2PM Strawberry Festival Raffle Drawings begin

3PM Parade and Scholarship winners announced

4:55PM Strawberry Festival $500 raffle drawing

5PM Festival closes

The parade, which begins at noon, travels down Central Avenue in Ridgely and finishes up at the Martin Sutton Park at the edge of town. The crafts, food, bands and events are all located at the Martin Sutton Park and within easy walking distance of the Parade site. Food, in addition to strawberries, shortcake and ice cream, includes pit beef, barbecue chicken, hot dogs, hamburgers and a wide variety of beverages. The Festival is a fundraising event for the Ridgely Lions Club. The Club directs all their net proceeds into vision-related charities and to support various community groups and activities. The Festival also offers fundraising opportunities for local youth groups, churches and other community interests.

If the Grannies have gotten you fired up about strawberries, but you you've got a boat-load of company coming and simply can't get away, the Grannies have a thought or two to offer. If you really love strawberries but don't have a lot of prep time consider:

1)  Slicing strawberries can take a really long time. Several years ago, the Grannies gave up slicing with a knife to slicing with an egg slicer. Now, the really cheap kind won't hold up very long, so shop for one of the better ones. You'll be amazed at how little time it takes to slice a big bowl of berries this way

2)  Give some thought to a packaged shortcake mix. When smothered in ripe red strawberries and a big scoop of ice cream, folks won't suspect that Bisquick had anything to do with the final product (remember to hide the box)

3)  Unless your name is St. Martha of Stewart, don't even think about making your own ice cream

4)  Take a pass on the slicing thing all together and serve whole berries with a small fondue pot of melted chocolate

So! Off your rockers and out to your local farmers market and pick up some berries for this weekend. Fresh, local seasonal foods are so good for you!

The Gardening Grannies live, love and garden on the Delmarva Peninsula. You can reach them at gardeninggrannies@wmdt.com.