Thursday evening we went to pick strawberries (and sugar snap peas) at Barthel's Fruit Farm. It was a beautiful day for picking, and we had a great time.
We picked about 15 pounds of berries. They are so sweet and juicy. Yesterday I put up 4 batches of my Easy Strawberry Jam. We also made popsicles by adding orange juice and a touch of sugar to the berries and blending them. Yummy!
The boys helped by keeping Connor out of my way, and by licking the spoons and pot! Mmmmm, there is nothing better than hot jam! They also made peanut butter and jelly sandwiches right away. :)Yay! We have jam again! Two pints, twenty half-pints, and seven quarter-pints.
All the fruit floated to the top, though, so I don't think I'll be entering any in the fair. Does anyone know why that happens? Today I'll put some berries aside for when our peaches come, and then I'll make MY favorite jam: Peach-Strawberry. I just love how all the jars look on my counter.
yum-o!
ReplyDeleteWe were at Barthel's Friday morning. The peas were AWESOME but I was decidedly underwhelmed by the berries... wonder if you were in a different field... All we found were small, uneven, notverysweet berries... We picked enough to snack on, and freeze (I've given up on jam as my hasn't jelled the last three years! (first two years were awesome, though) and made a batch of strawberry muffins. I also searched farmer's markets for rhubarb and couldn't find any.... :(
Enjoy your jam! (no clue on why the berries float...)
I don't have any reasonable clue WHY they float but a tip on how to prevent that. Just turn over the jam every 30 minutes until it is cold :)
ReplyDeleteThat way they don't float :)
Wow, that looks like so much fun! I used to make fruit butters years ago - think I'll start again. Nothing storebought can compare to homemade. Yum!
ReplyDelete