Ah, Spring {It's Strawberry Time!}

a post by Jenni {aka Mom}

My 3 absolute favorite spring goodies

We've harvested the first couple quarts of our 2012 strawberries! Yesterday we celebrated with a breakfast of shortcakes and strawberries and cream -YUM!

From the looks of things, the massive wave of ripe berries will hit next week.

I had originally considered not making jam this year (we still have quite a bit left from last year), but many of the other strawberry recipes I'd like to try are just as time consuming, so I think I'll go ahead and make jam after all. 

I also want to try at least a few other goodies, and am scouring my cookbooks and the web for ideas.

I am really beginning to enjoy cooking by the harvest seasons - that mindset and gardening in general had been so foreign to me.

This week I've experimented with asparagus and spinach recipes - my two all time favorite spring veggies. I'll post our new family favorites sometime soon.

Does anyone have any links or recipe ideas they'd like to share? Any input y'all have is greatly appreciated :-)

Oh, and here's a yummy video to provide some strawberry inspiration:

Buried in Berries! Our Favorite Strawberry Recipes 2011

The pile of berries that just refused to shrink - batch, after batch, after batch, after batch!!

This year I experienced making jam for the first time.

I’ll tell you one thing, my husband planted enough berries! I made batch after batch, and the pile of berries on the counter did not seem to shrink at all for a loooong time.

I tried jam with pectin, and jam without pectin. I tried low-sugar jam, and regular traditional jam. Once I was all jammed out I made strawberry sauce for pancakes and other goodies, strawberry-guava lemonade, and Sundae-in-a-Jar. From that point on I washed and cored berries, freezing them in gallon-sized freezer bags. I am pretty certain we have enough various homemade organic strawberry products to last us a while!

The family rated all the recipes 5 stars, except for the Strawberry Margarita Jam which boiled far too long and is extremely thick and hard to spread (tastes awesome, though – more for me!!).

The family favorite jam is Strawberry Rhubarb. We love the sweet-tart flavor and heartiness. It’s wonderful!

And, the #1 hands-down favorite of everything I made this year was the Sundae-in-a-Jar. My husband has forbidden me to give any more away.

 

Sundae-in-a-Jar is basically strawberries, raspberries, and chocolate liquor (plus sugar and pectin). It’s unbelievable. Really. One could spread it on bread, but we have found it best on a scoop of good quality vanilla ice cream. Or chocolate ice cream. Or cheesecake…obviously this violates our whole low-sugar policy! I think I can find it in my heart to allow this treat in moderation. It’s definitely a recipe I’ll be making again next year!

And so it begins...

Ack!! It was stormy and gloomy & I was enjoying my indoor duties. Then the storms cleared and my husband dutifully sent the boys in with these! The first baby-batch of strawberries was ready to harvest today!

There's a LOT of berries left out there that are still green, or pink but just not quite ready yet. It looks like I'm making the first batch of jam this afternoon...and a pitcher of strawberry lemonade to go with supper - YUM!

Not exactly (AT ALL!!) what I had planned for the day, but here goes nothin'!!!

Ready to Jam! (I think...)

I'm not sure if I'm ready to MAKE jam, or just ready to jam out of here. I've romanticized the idea of home preserving, and enjoying all the homemade jams and goodies just like my mom used to make. I've even done a little home canning - salsa and diced tomatoes. I've considered how nice it would be to whip up a little batch of this or that. Strawberry Jam, Blackberry Jam, Strawberry Syrup...mmmmmm! Well, now my time has come. I'll have to deliver, or let wonderful produce and precious time spent go to waste...all the while learning as I go.

This time last year, my husband convinced me that we should start growing strawberries. At the time, we had been enforcing the low-sugar-no-high-fructose-corn-syrup-no-artificial-sweeteners rule in our home for a while and had found such jams and jellies to be a wee bit spendy. So we put in our tiny baby strawberry plants and let the rows begin to mat, as images of homemade jam danced in our heads.

Strawberry beds - July 2010 - after about 2 months of growth

Strawberry beds in foreground - July 2010 - after about 2 months of growth

After the winter, I looked over the beds with dismay - they all looked dead. All that careful weeding and planning seemed to have gone to waste. Well, low and behold, a month later those same plants are lush and teeming with flowers and green berries! (Experienced gardeners, yes I realize how ignorant I am. This is my first strawberry experience, thank you. I know nothing except that which I retain from books and Google.)

Matted strawberry rows May 2011

Flowering strawberry plants

Green strawberries just waiting to ripen

I don't even know how many quarts of berries to expect! So now the question is - can I actually make jam? We shall see! This year I plan to try out the following strawberry recipes:

• Traditional Strawberry Jam
• Old-Fashioned Strawberry Jam
• Natural Summer Fruit Jam
• Strawberry Margarita Preserves
• Sundae in a Jar (Doesn't that sound AWFUL!!?? So much for low-sugar on that one!)
• Strawberry Sauce (for my Hubbie, who prefers berries on his pancakes)
• Strawberry Lemonade Concentrate

I'll enlist some lucky victims to taste test later this summer, and post the results.

In addition to the strawberries, I noticed that our blackberry bushes, peach trees, and apple trees are ALL bearing this year. Thank goodness they don't all have to be harvested at the same time!! What began as a little bit of canning may turn out to be a short-term full time job. LOL