Random Thoughts and Musings

So, a couple of weeks ago, I went with Christy & her daycare kids to the local strawberry fields. Christy takes the kids every year, but this is the first time I was able to go, too. I was especially excited, since I’d recently started flipping through Our Best Bites for recipes, and found this one for Strawberry Freezer Jam. It isn’t their original recipe (although they have many of those), but without seeing this I would not have known how easy it is to make strawberry jam at home, nor would I even have had the idea to do so!

(Quick side note - if you like to cook, or if you are trying to up your kitchen skills with creativity, healthy ideas, or even a few simple go-to tricks, check out Sara & Kate’s website. When I found my way to their website from a link my cousin posted, I spent a few hours just perusing their website when I should have been sleeping!)

Back to the topic at hand.

We had a bus full of people with us (only we brought 3 vehicles): Christy & her children plus her daycare children, her Mom & 2 nephews, and her cousin & her three boys. It was quite the crew! I grabbed a box and took the 4 month old in her car seat, little Ava (nearly 2), and nephew Cole (4), and the middle cousin (2 or 3?). Later, Seralyn joined me, too. I’m not sure how I got the youngins, and as afraid as I was of what they would pick, they did mostly get me ripe-ish, whole-ish berries. In the long run, I was able to use most of what was in my box.

One of my pretties:

We had a great afternoon, picking berries. Then, we got the kids fresh strawberry yogurt (they make it on site), and Christy & I ate strawberry shortcakes (the cake is also made on site). Everything was amazingly delicious, and it was a WONDERFUL afternoon! We were even able to do it on a day that all of the elementary school-age children had an early-release day, so we had the whole gang with us!

This was my box:

That weekend, Rena and I sat down and started cleaning berries. We washed them, cut the stems off, then cut off any areas that looked bruised or had lumps. We piled them up into an 8-cup batter bowl, a 16-cup serving bowl, and an 8-cup serving bowl. We had A LOT of strawberries! (YUM!)

Just 1/4 of our catch:

At this point, I sent Rena off to do other things because our kitchen is tiny, and I cannot stand to have more than one person in there at a time. I got started mashing our berries. I was very upset to discover that I didn’t have a potato masher (I have since purchased one, but that is a post for another day), so I had to get creative. I also do not have any fancy kitchen gadgets, like a food processor. So, I mashed some berries with a fork. Others, I dropped into my Magic Bullet (I have found the MB doesn’t get any of my blended items as smooth as I’d like, so I figured it would be perfect for leaving my berries lumpy). The berries I ended up with were juicier than Kate’s from OBB, but I decided to run with it anyway. After all, she’s already talented in the kitchen. I’m still learning.

My berry mash:

I measured out 4 cups of sugar for each of the two batches of strawberry jam I was making, and folded it into the berries.

Then, I mixed the pectin and water over the stove,

… and added it to the mixture.

I divvied each batch into 4 medium-sized containers, then labeled them carefully.

After a full day in the kitchen, I had 10 containers of strawberry stuffs. We let it “set” til the next day, then started distributing to a few people, telling them to put it in the freezer for a few days before eating it. I have only a couple left, for me and Christy; they’re waiting in the freezer til either of us runs out of our store-bought jam/jelly.

I found that some of the containers “set” better than others - even within the same batch. Odd. Personally, I’m not too worried about it being a little extra moist - I plan to use at least one batch, maybe two, in a secret project for Christy’s birthday next month. It’s another recipe I found on Our Best Bites, and I’m SUPER EXCITED to be making it for her. But Christy reads my blog now, so I can’t tell you what it is until I’ve made it for her! *grins*

Next time I decide to get this ambitious, I won’t refrigerate my berries first. I’ll have to make sure I pick them earlier in the day so I can bring them straight in and crush them while they’re still warm from the sun. I’ll also have my potato masher to help out, so they shouldn’t get quite so juicy. Maybe then ALL of my containers will “set” properly. Then again, maybe not. I’m not exactly talented in the kitchen.

Have YOU ever made strawberry freezer jam? What about any other kind of freezer jam? Do you - or have you - canned/jarred your own foods the traditional way? How did you get started, and why do you continue (or not continue)?

xoxo

3 Responses to “Strawberries & Fun”

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