One of the great things about living in Kansas is that just about anywhere you choose to live has 'rural' country close by. Consequently, we have lots of great farms to visit to pick our own produce if we so choose. The last time we went strawberry picking as when I was pregnant with Sam ... what is it about me going strawberry picking 8 months pregnant. Thankfully the weather was beautiful, with a great breeze! The kids and I picked 16 pounds of berries ... 3 ice cream buckets full! Actually, Rebecca, Emily, Sam and I picked berries, Alex ate them, nearly as fast as we picked them.
Monday, June 9, 2008
I didn't have time to make jam last week, so Wednesday night GR and I spent a good 2 hours hulling and dicing strawberries. We enjoyed a huge bowl of berries for breakfast and lunch Thursday, and the rest went into the freezer, waiting to be made into jam.
I prefer cooked jam, and I'm loving the new "no sugar" needed pectin that is now available. I opt to use a little sugar in the recipe to help preserve the jam, but it's so nice to be able to make a recipe of jam with only 2 cups of sugar.
So while Alex napped, the rest of the kids, helped me mash the berries ... cook the mixture on the stove ... and then listen for the satisfying sound of the lids popping. We ended up with 11 pints and four 8 oz. jars. Not bad for a days work. And it tastes soo good on all our homemade bread!
4 comments:
so, is this some official announcement, eight months into your pregnancy?!? knowing me, i probably missed the initial announcement...congrats, kathleen!
reminds me of grandma's kitchen.
I have new found appreciation for the cases Mom and Dad gave cousins getting married that year of 12 quart jars of raspberry jam. I now have a better understanding of exactly how much work that took, and exactly how many recipes of raspberry jam we actually made to yield that much jam. I wonder if any of them have any of that jam left. It was oh so good.
Michelle ... details to come.
awesome job, k8! I ended up just putting all of my berries into the freezer.
Post a Comment