Strawberries, Strawberries !!!

Sunday was strawberry picking day. Connor and I drove out towards Milton and met up with Lucy, Mollie & Hannah. The picking was amazing. The strawberry plants were loaded with berries and they were so sweet and juicy. It took us all of 25 minutes to fill up our baskets. I went home with 4 baskets and Lucy with 3 baskets.



As soon as I arrived home I started making jam. I managed 2 batches before the evening. I made another 2 on Monday and 2 more this morning. In total I made 13 large jars and 10 smaller jars. This will certainly carry us through the winter and then some. I did research different jam recipes to try to find one that uses less sugar but I did end up using the tried and true recipe found in the certo package. And yes I did use certo though Lucy's mom Wendy did tell me last summer that she does not use certo/pectin and her jam sets fine. I will just have to visit her and have her teach me her technique.



After all the jam making I still had 1 and 1/2 baskets. With the 1/2 basket I cleaned and hulled the berries, laid them out on lined cookie sheets and popped them in the freezer. This yielded 4 freezer bags of frozen berries which we will use for smoothies and such. Now this leaves me with 1 basket which will be transformed into strawberry syrup tomorrow. On to raspberries and cherries. Stay tuned!