Strawberry Season

We visited DeLange's Redberry Farm yesterday to pick strawberries. Never picked strawberries before (in my adult memory). Always stayed away because I thought it was too much work. Well, think again! I picked 24 pounds of berries (mostly myself) in less than 90 minutes while chatting with friends and keeping an eye on the kids. They were $1.50/pound this year for the U-pick. And we had a great morning!

It had rained the previous day so the field was wet. We wore rain boots and just didn't worry too much about the mud. I was quite pleased to find that DeLange's use a technique for field drainage that makes picking much easier - there are troughs between rows so the rows seem elevated! My back was thankful for that. However there are other muscles that got a nice workout... stairs were a little slow this morning!

So far I've allocated strawberries for:
2 Strawberry Pies
2 loaves Strawberry Bread - not to self: do NOT over mix!!!
1 double recipe Strawberry Rhubarb Cake
1 double batch of no-sugar jam (recipe from inside the box of pectin)
1 double batch no-sugar strawberry-rhubarb jam (modified recipe from box of pectin)
7 quarts in the freezer for smoothies, topping, baking etc. over the next 12 months
about 2 quarts for eating fresh

Rhubarb-mania

My dad picked me a paper bag full of rhubarb a week or so ago. I told him I'd take as much as he wanted to pick for me. I chopped 24 cups worth of stalks.

2 - 4 cup packets went into the freezer for later use

8 cups + 2 cups frozen strawberries + 1 cup fresh strawberries + 3 (sm) pkgs sugar free strawberry jell-o + 1 (lg) pkg orange jell-o + 1/3 cup sugar + 1 pkg no sugar pectin = a double batch of jam. (NOTE: I doubled and combined several recipes - if you try it, the amount of sugar should be 1/3 - 1/2 cup for 4 cups rhubarb, or a little more if you use the sugar free jell-o)

4 cups reserved for cake

4 cups reserved for pie
The pie turned out tart, with pockets of sugar here and there. Husband was a big fan of the sugar pockets. I'm not. Next time I'll mix or layer the sugar in rather than just covering the top of the rhubarb, as the recipe suggested. Overall, a good pie experience. One piece remains...

I'd like a little more to have another go at the jam. Additionally, some of my friends make homemade jam and its great to swap so everyone has a variety. We've been able to trade away some spice pear jam for some fabulous strawberry freezer jam (Marcie - it's amazing!), sweet grape jelly (a treat we never buy compliments of Missy) and a yet-untasted cherry jam (super excited about this one!) from Maria. Last fall I landed 3 bushels of pears (free) from which I made 5 batches of jam (both canned and freezer) and canned 24 quarts and froze 6 quarts. While I really enjoy spiced pear jam, a little variety is always welcome.