Strawberry Season!

This past weekend we decided it was time for some fresh strawberries, so we headed to our local berry farm to pick our own. It was the perfect day for it!

The farm was having their *spring festival* so we even got a hayride straight from our car to down on the farm~the kiddos were pretty excited:)

Once we got to the strawberry field they gave us our picking buckets and off we went.

The berries were gorgeous! I love all their different shapes, especially this little heart-shaped one that's capped at an angle~so cute!

The kiddos did very well picking~although it got hot for them pretty quickly. They would definitely have to toughen up if they were going to be farmers~ha!

Finally we were finished picking.

We always end up picking about 2x more than we originally intend to, it's hard to stop picking every ripe one you see.

The very next day was Mothers Day and I had my family over for lunch. We had strawberry shortcake for dessert~yum!!

Then it was time to address the large amount of strawberries left. I was thinking.....JAM! I've helped my mom make jam before, but haven't really done it on my own. Then I saw this oh-so-easy recipe on my friend Stephanie's blog for freezer jam and decided to give it a whirl. I did have to run to the store (or four) to get a box of half-pint jars and Sure-Jell, but that didn't cost much.

I put the jars and lids on to boil while I washed and capped my berries.

Then it was a fast and simple matter of following the freezer jam recipe (there is also one inside the Sure-Jell box) and filling up the jars.

They turned out so pretty! They needed to sit for 24 hours then they went into the freezer (for up to a year~or the refrigerator for up to 3 weeks).

We cracked one open this morning with some toast and peanut butter...mmmm. It tasted so good! I have to admit it was a bit runnier than I wanted, but the flavor was wonderful! We ate from a jar that went directly into the refrigerator, so maybe the ones that sit in the freezer for a bit will not be so runny. Feel free to share your tips on that for me.

Comments

Jamie said…

You have a very beautiful family.The strawberries look perfect,I can't wait til ours start popping up(they are flowering out though)I am going to try the same recipe as you did.
Blessings~

May 11, 2011 at 6:03 PM

MissMOE said…

Picking berries sound like a wonderful Saturday activity, but eating the berries as jam sounds even better!

May 13, 2011 at 12:03 PM

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