This past week we went to a local farm, The Fruit & Berry Patch, to pick this seasons first harvest: strawberries! I've been craving strawberries lately so on a nice day with great weather it seemed like the perfect thing to do. The farm was littered with little red berries all over and it was so hard not to just sit there and eat them.
We left with almost 52 lbs of strawberries! Here is what I made with some of our bounty this year:
Old Fashioned Strawberry Jam and canned Strawberry Rhubarb Pie Filling via Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving
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Strawberry fruit roll ups via Jam It, Pickle It, Cure It: And Other Cooking Projects
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Strawberry Icebox Pie via Martha Stewart's New Pies and Tarts: 150 Recipes for Old-Fashioned and Modern Favorites
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I also have a batch of strawberry vinegar aging in the basement that should be ready in about four weeks to can. I made this two years and it has become a household favorite. All I do is mix some of the vinegar with sour cream and ta-da, instant strawberry salad dressing! I dried about three cups of strawberries for future use in granola as well. With the rest I just froze them for use in smoothies, more jam, and popsicles. Even our chickens enjoyed some strawberries:
If you'd like to find a place in your area to pick strawberries from, check out Pick Your Own. It's our go to for finding local pick-your-own farms. I can't wait to go back for the next season of fruit, perhaps blueberries, raspberries or peaches.
4 comments:
this is soo impressive! I can't believe you did all this! We went strawberry picking and only managed to eat half then freeze the rest! Well done!
It took a week but it was well worth the effort. That jam is addictive, I've already eaten a half pint by myself in less then a week!
Oh you have made me want to go out and pick strawberries tomorrow! Everything looks so good I especially like your strawberry jam. How do you make the strawberry vinegar? I make herb vinegar each year but since our local strawberries are so good this year I would love to make some vinegar with them also.
Alicia - For the strawberry vinegar I use about 4 cups strawberries and 5 cups of white vinegar. Mash up the berries a little bit and place them in a large pot with the vinegar. Cover and let sit for 4 weeks, stirring every few days. Around four weeks strain out the strawberries and you are left with wondrous vinegar that has a strawberry flavor and is bright red. It's my favorite. I haven't made herb vinegar before but was actually hoping to this year if our herb garden works out.
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