strawberries

This has been the week of strawberries! The rabbits ate ours, so we had to pick some up elsewhere (Not that our very few plants would have given us anything notable). Driving home from my mom's house last weekend, the kids and I followed signs for strawberries. It led us to an Amish farm.

I would wager that no Amish people read this blog. I guess I just don't know that much about them. There were two ladies who sold the strawberries. They were very sweet and did make some small talk. I was really nervous that would would say something that would make me sound really silly or reaffirm their suspicions about 'the rest of us.' I really had lots of questions for them.

The kids found the rabbits in the hutch interesting. Their rabbits are in the cages, so they can't eat the strawberries.

We bought three full quarts, we ate half of each of them in the car on the way home.

When we got home, the neighbors had gone strawberry picking and had these for us! Half of these were cut and thrown in the freezer. The other half was used to make fruit roll ups. We used a recipe that my Grandma spied on a blog called Fly Through Our Window. I tell my grandma it's a good thing she monitors half the internet, because i can only handle half as well.

Lou helped me make them. I think I let them cook too long or I poured them too thin. I think that may be it. I will try again.

This week, we also stumbled on a you-pick strawberry place. Literally, we pulled over to turn around and there we were. Picking berries is better than being lost.

I knew Bee would be a good picker, she weeds the garden at home and thinks it's a treat!

Lou ate as many as he picked.

Bee wouldn't stop until she did the whole row!


Bee picked, Lou ate...
and ate.
Bee picked...
and Lou ate.
and ate.
We did end up with about 5 1/2 pounds. We will be going back for more though.

I tricked my neighbor Carol into coming over for a few minutes. I made her stay awhile and make jam. I also tricked her into bringing over her own berries since I was 2 pounds short at this point.

We made jam using the recipe from the Ball Blue book. It's also the same recipe that comes in the pectin box.
Bee helped... a little.

We ended up with 14 jars. They are still setting up on my counter. We were rather surprised with the amount of sugar involved! I think next time I'll look around for a slightly different recipes. It looks like there is some additional good info about making strawberry jam here at Food In Jars.