Celebrating the Strawberry: Keel Farms strawberry Riesling vinaigrette

PLANT CITY, Fla. - Strawberry season is in full swing at Keel Farms in Plant City, home to the Keel & Curley Winery.

"This is the fifth year of us growing strawberries on our property. We're in Plant City, the winter strawberry capital of the world, so we're super excited about everything strawberry here", said Wendy Camacho, Chief of Customer Experience.

And of course, that includes wine.

"We carry a lot of different strawberry flavors. We have a strawberry Riesling. That's probably the number one most popular strawberry flavor", said Camacho.

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That Riesling, paired with strawberries, is part of a simple, but signature dish at Keel Farms.

"It's called a berry salad. It's going to have blueberries, strawberries, blue cheese, honey, walnuts, our Riesling vinaigrette", said Chef Andy Nassar.

"It's probably one of our top-selling products, is our berry salad", said Camacho.

Nassar said the strawberry Riesling in the vinaigrette is what sets this dish apart.

"I think our wine makes it different because, you know, it's something that we produce in-house", said Nassar.

To put it together, he first boils the wine.

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"You've got to get rid of the alcohol content. So, you know, kids can eat the salad. But it's just all you have to do is bring the wine to a boil and then, let it cool off a little bit", said Nassar.

He then adds blended strawberries. 

"We like our dressing very smooth," said Nassar.

He chases that with salt, pepper, sugar, white wine vinegar, the Riesling and then a mixture of mint and honey.

"The mint gives it the freshness, and then the honey gives it the sweetness. We try to use as little sugar as possible to, to promote the sugar in the strawberries", said Nassar.

He also adds a mixture of olive and canola oils. 

"I tend to find that if you use straight olive oil, it kind of gives too much of a robust, taste. You can really let the vinegar, the strawberries, and the wine pop through rather than just tasting oil", said Nassar.

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Once it's blended, it's drizzled on top of the salad for an extra strawberry punch.

"Every bite is full flavor", said Camacho.

Keel Farms will be hosting a Strawberry Bash on Feb. 26 & 27.

For more information, click here.

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