Hello sweetie!

Beloved by tennis fans and tortoises, the strawberry is many people’s favourite fruit. They may be symbolic of an English summer, but the Mediterranean climate of North Cyprus also produces bumper crops.

Yeşilırmak and Yedidalga, villages on the north west coast, are synonymous with strawberries. It’s to do with the soil and their sheltered position deep in a river valley, which promotes early growth of the delicious local variety, the Camarosa.

As you might expect, they line the field throughout the area, row upon row, but you may also find some growers prefer to cultivate them on wires in the air, like some grapevines.

Depending on the severity of winter, they can be found in supermarkets as early as February. But they are in their glory in April and May, filling the air with their unmistakable smell and attracting visitors from all over the island for pick-your-own sprees, which, as usual, mean almost as many in the mouth as in the basket!

As the season draws to a close, the producers sell their remaining crops very cheaply, so you can be enjoying the unique taste of North Cyprus strawberries, packed with their syrupy sugars and superior flavour, before they have even picked the seeds for Wimbledon.