This is a locavore’s take on a moscow mule – using the great local strawberries we grow here on the central coast. We started infusing vodka with the best summer fruit we tasted last year, and when the strawberries approach that perfect balance between sweetness and flavour, we wash up a couple of baskets, stemmed and halved, and loosely fill quart canning jars. Add a vanilla bean, or maybe some freshly cracked black pepper, then fill with vodka to cover the fruit, and set in the fridge for 3-7 days. The colour will be almost immediate on the strawberries – as the vodka pulls out the colour, flavour and pectin. By the time you decant this, you will notice that it has thickened as well. Store refrigerated, or share with people you really like.

Best of all, show it off in a thirst quenching long drink:

• fill a 12 ounce glass one-third to one-half full with ice
• add juice of one whole lime (about 1½ ounces)
• add 1 ounce of strawberry vodka, home infused
• fill the glass with Fever-Tree Ginger Beer

Enjoy!

Other successful infusions we have liked as mules include blackberry and blueberry. The colour is not as dramatic, but the flavour is there. We looked at other recipes for infusing that added sugar and/or used less fruit, and prefer the jar full of fruit method (no sugar added).