Thursday, May 13, 2010

Strawberry Math

Last year I blogged here about making strawberry freezer jam.  One of the things I did was include the number of batches of freezer jam we made—13.  Every year I wonder if I’ve made enough for the voracious jam eaters that live in my house.  Some years we have extra, and some years (the really bad years) we run out before the new strawberry season.  But I can never remember how many batches I made the year before!

This year before we went to pick berries I sent someone out to the freezer to count the number of jam containers left. 

There were 8.

Each batch makes almost 2 containers of jam.  Which meant that I made 4 batches too many last year.  And which meant I could make 4 fewer batches this year. 

I’m a little worried to trust that math—I’d rather have a few extra batches than run out in February or March!

So last week we went to pick strawberries on morning.  I love the drive to Lyon Farms because we get to see views like this

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and this.

May 2010 216 As an added bonus, when I pulled off onto a frontage road to take a picture of the lake (I’m just not skilled enough to do it while driving at 60 mph on the interstate across the lake!) we saw this!

May 2010 220 Rachel was beyond freaked out that I stopped to take it’s picture, but I’m glad I did.  Does anyone have any guesses on what kind it is?  (I’m clueless.)  We weren’t sure at first if it was alive, but when it slithered back off the road and into the grass we were pretty sure it was.

We had lots of fun picking berries,

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and got plenty for our 5 batches of jam.

May 2010 238

Hooray for a full freezer!

5 comments:

  1. I have to laugh about YOU stopping for pictures. My girls laugh at me for stopping for pictures. I was to sick last weekend to stop but I really wanted a picture of this farm on the way to get our strawberries. On the way home there was a guy stopped at the farm I wanted to stop at. NOT only was he stopped on the side of the road he had a tripod out and was setting up to get the perfect picture. I told them I wasn't the only crazy one. Now I can tell them you do it too. :) That is three people that stop on the side of the road to get pictures. LOL I am sure I can find more. Pretty pictures by the way.

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  2. I'm getting strawberries this weekend and I'm SO excited! I'm thinking it's just your run of the mill black snake. That's mostly all we see on the roads around here. We had one living under our front porch once. It totally freaked me out, but Josh insisted it was fine because black snakes eat rattle snakes which are much less fun to have around.

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  3. Kerri--I know. I don't even try to pretend I'm not weird. It is what it is. One day I was at Duke Gardens taking pictures of camellias, and I noticed a few other people taking lots of pictures. I thought--for some reason, some of us just want to record what we see! And now I want to know where the perfect farm was!!! ;)

    Jenny--thanks for the snake ID. I'm glad I let him live!

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  4. Those strawberries look so yummy! I'd definitely rather have too many jars versus running out because store-bought jam just does NOT compare!

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  5. Will you teach me how to make strawberry jam? I am serious. I have never done it and it is on my bucket list! I will provide all material...and even a plate f cookies as form of payment. :)

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