Thursday, June 6, 2013

Strawberry Bliss

On Tuesday I went for a walk with a woman in my ward.  Ninety minutes later (90!!!) I stumbled back into my house, wondering if I would ever be able to walk again.  And then I gathered up the girls and we headed back out within a few minutes to pick strawberries before the day got too hot.  (I was really worried about being able to walk again!)

The day was spectacularly beautiful and the strawberry farm location was lovely.

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The girls were a little disgruntled that Jared had gotten out of picking because of an upset stomach, but they still did a great job picking and were rewarded afterwards with Panda Express and slushies from Sonic to cool them off.

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Lots of the strawberries were dirty because of all of the rain we had last week.  But the ones that weren’t dirty were totally delicious.  I was always a total fan of NC strawberries, but I have to say that while the NC beaches may trump Oregon, Oregon definitely has the edge in strawberry flavor. 

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When we got home I made a strawberry pie and then took a nap so that I would have the energy to make 8 batches of freezer jam.  We had the pie for dessert, and then I had it again for breakfast and lunch on Wednesday.  (At which point my stomach started complaining that I’d had enough strawberries for a while.)

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I am happy to report that our freezer is now restocked with strawberry freezer jam.  Now we’re just waiting for the raspberries to ripen in a few weeks…and then the blackberries and blueberries…

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PS—I am pleased to report that rinsing your strawberries with vinegar really does prolong their life.  I poured just a little bit of vinegar into the water when I rinsed my berries the first time, then rinsed them again with plain water.  I sorted through them, took out the best berries for the pie and used the berries that were a little softer right away in the jam.  We had the rest of the berries for dessert tonight—more than 48 hours after they were picked, and there was no softening or any mold at all on any of them—they kept in the fridge much better than they usually do.  Apparently the vinegar gets rid of any mold spores on them.  Here’s a picture from tonight—they were still fantastic!

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4 comments:

  1. That pie looks so good! This is so silly, but last summer I took the kids to Sonic all the time for half-price slushies....that was such a great summer, and it will forever be associated in my mind with Sonic:).

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  2. Yum! teach me how to make freezer jam, I would love to be able to do that!

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  3. Seriously Emily, it is so easy! We used a new pectin this year and I loved it. The brand was "Mrs Wages" and it's specifically for freezer jam. You mix the pectin and sugar (and I love that this is for low sugar--some pectins call for more sugar than fruit) and set it aside. Then you wash your berries, get rid of the stems, and chop them all up. I usually coarsely chop 1/3-1/2, and puree the rest. It takes 4 cups chopped/pureed, you mix it with the sugar mix for 3 minutes, and then seriously you are done. So easy, and so yummy!

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  4. I'm sad to have missed out on the freezer jam this year. :( We are just moving at the wrong time. And, something tells me that Florida strawberries won't be as delicious... I guess I'll have to plan a get-away to Oregon to come try yours!

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