How I accidentally planted a strawberry patch & an easy tart recipe in anticipation of the harvest

This week, I'm eating honeyed strawberry and rhubarb tart and contemplating the new strawberry patch I didn’t plan and don’t have room for.

I planted a new strawberry patch by accident.

I didn’t mean to. I don’t have space for strawberries. But a friend had planted up some of his spare runners, offered me some, and I couldn’t resist.

I have packed them in, a dozen or so, at the edge of one raised bed. I gave them a good feed, in the hope they will forgive their cramped living quarters, and they’ve settled in well, doubling in size already.

They (probably) won’t produce fruit this year

And they might be a little light on berries next year too. But, if they make it beyond that I’ll have a crop from them for 4-5 years before they give up the ghost.

But that’s not the end. Oh no.

The main plants send out runners every year which root themselves into the soil and produce new plants. Far more than necessary, so you must dig some up or things get crowded. These spare babies, so to speak, are the plants I was given. It’s all very pleasing and cyclical.

Strawberry anticipation

I’m so excited about my new strawberry patch that I remember a super easy, and very useful, dessert recipe that I used to make all the time but which has, inexplicably, fallen out of my repertoire. It’s a basic sweet pastry case which you fill which a simple sweetened cream cheese mixture and top with whatever fruit you have to hand.

I might not have strawberries to hand yet, but I decide to get in a practice run of the tart to refresh my memory for when the harvest finally arrives. I’ve tarted it up a little here too. Mainly because I wanted to be able to tell you I’d tarted up a tart. Sorry.

Honeyed strawberry & rhubarb tart

Any of the three components in this tart can form the base of other desserts. The pastry case is a blank canvas, the addition of pistachio butter giving it a subtle nuttiness (if you don’t want this, omit and increase the dairy butter by 30g); the creamy filling, which is the work of moments, can be served in glasses with fruit and a biscuit, or used as a fridge cheesecake; and the macerated strawberries grace anything from breakfast yogurt to ice-cream. I had a glut of rhubarb too and, since rhubarb and strawberries are the Fred and Ginger of late-spring fruits, I thought I’d give them a turn together here.

Makes 1 tart for 7 people (plus enough pastry for another tart base)

• 450g strawberries, halved

• 4 tbsp runny honey

• 7 tbsp poached rhubarb made to this recipe, drained

• 200g double cream