STRAWBERRY TIME!
Yesterday after school the kids and I went to go pick our first batch of strawberries out at one of the local fields. Our area is known for delicious strawberries so this is one thing that I had decided to leave to the local farms, thus freeing up my beds to produce other things the rest of the year. Plus, the kids love to go pick!
Finn doing a quality check
Our haul from yesterday includes all these berries plus a dozen farm eggs for $20, not too bad!
Next on the list was making jam, but we needed a quick boost of energy first - in the form of what else? - strawberries and eggs! Nothing beats eggs for a quick dinner and the strawberries were less than an hour old here, still warmed by the sun. Of course hubby made the eggs which means although delicious, he fried them in butter diner-style so they weren't tipping the healthy scale tonight!
First batch of freezer jam ready to be stored. I will make another batch today, but what should I do with the rest of those berries?
Can you see where this is going?...
I plan on sending the kids back out this weekend with daddy to pick another batch so I can freeze whole berries for use in smoothies, etc later in the year. We are entertaining both Friday and Saturday evening this weekend so I know I will not have enough left over after the weekend for freezing!
If my posts become scatterbrained in the next week or so, it's because hubby is deploying soon and I have been in denial up to the past weekend, and we are now going crazy with chores, entertaining, cramming "family activities" in, and dealing with assorted military gear and paraphenelia being strewn all over the house as it makes its way into seabags. Congrats to me, I have been doing this for many years now, and this is the first year I successfully managed to completely ignore the upcoming deployment! This is a good thing, any military spouse will tell you that before and after deployment is the worst times in a marriage, there is bickering, complete tantrums, and just mayhem in general, the only way to avoid it is to truly ignore the event. There is no such thing as being 100% prepared, so there is no reason in my book to worry daily over his deployment date and begin the marital and family strife until the last minute! Every deployment for the kids gets harder for them as they get older and really need their dad more. I know they will be fine, but will just take a little extra TLC and cultivation - good thing gardeners know how to do that!
Those strawberries look fantastic!
ReplyDeleteThanks for all that you and your family go through to serve our country!
((HUGS)) I'll be sending up some good words for y'all.
ReplyDeleteOoooh, strawberries! Not fair! Ours are just starting to blossom now, so I have a while to wait. Come to think of it, I'd better set up the temporary electric fence so the cows can go graze down the grass in my favourite wild strawberry field. The grass grows slowly there and, if they mow it down good in mid-May, conditions should be just right for gathering the tiny wild berries there in June.
ReplyDeleteBlessings on you during the transition to deployment. May there be more happy ignoring!
But what I really want to know is... did you end up making that trifle? 'Cause strawberry trifle sounds glorious to me!
TASTY!
ReplyDeleteI need to harvest more strawberries from my community garden. I'm also involved in a cooking contest this weekend. The two ingredients? Wonton wrappers and strawberries. I'm thinking strawberry soup and fried ginger/sugar wonton crispy cookie candy tasty yummy things.
Strawberries are god.
Jealous of your berries? Well, YA!! Hubby and I were talking about fresh strawberries at breakfast this morning. Almost 2 more months before ours are ready. Does that seem strange to you?
ReplyDeleteEggs fried in butter? Remember, our bodies NEED a certain amount of saturated fats (i.e., natural animal fats) to function properly. With your healthy, fresh food diet, those eggs were good for you!
It seems to me that there is so much more deployment stress on the spouse staying at home. You have to deal with so much by yourself and most importantly are responsible for the boys' well-being. I'm sending as much support as I can to you in the next week and over the entire deployment. Please use all of us out here in blogland as your own personal support as much as you need.
P.S. My mouth actually watered when I saw the picture of the trifle dish!
Uh... jealous LOTS! Like Mama Pea we are still almost two months from strawberry season! Sigh. There's that zone envy again. Mmm... I love freezer jam and trifle!!
ReplyDeleteCongrats to you is an understatement and good for you for ignoring something so utterly un-ignorable. I have great admiration for you and for all the miliary families that make this sacrifice. I can tell you are a woman of great strength but just so you know, you've got a solid (albeit virtual) support group here for you!
Ya, I'm jealous. I am so hungry for strawberry shortcake, made with REAL strawberries. There's just something wrong with those baseball sized ones they sell in the stores. I mean, strawberries should be red inside, not white.
ReplyDeleteYes...Very jealous!! Enjoy your time with your family and God Bless
ReplyDeleteThanks for all the well wishes everyone, and I will definitely be using you for a sounding board over the next 9 months of being holed up with 2 little kids! MaineCelt, I would love for you to post about that Rhubarb Coffee Cake you mentioned on Fiona's blog, I need to file a couple of good recipes away for when we move back up north. Wild strawberries are so good, I haven't been able to find too many around here. And for you and MamaPea, the trifle dish is still empty, but I just pulled a pound cake out of the oven... I will be making the dessert tomorrow morning and will post a pic (if it turns out, LOL!). Mama Pea, your butter comment made me laugh and think of something southern you would find amusing - when we moved down here we had a neighbor from Alabama, a big fat guy named "Slim", and he said his favorite was Alabama Sugar Cookies: sticks of butter rolled in sugar, ba-hahahahaha!
ReplyDeleteI would love to do this with Jonathan next month. Thanks for reminding me!
ReplyDeleteI'm telling you, your kids are so lucky to have a mom like you! This sort of thing is something they will remember and cherish for life!
Should've put a "drool warning" on this pic. Almost ruined the keyboard when I saw the yummy berries!
ReplyDeleteAs for the deployment, let me say again, thanks to hubby for serving, and to you and your kids for dealing with the fallout. Good luck with the pre-and-post-deployment stress. God bless!
Thanks, Thomas! Jonathan will love picking berries, and if there is one great beginner's canning project for kids, this is it! I make freezer jam because it's so easy, uses less sugar, and keeps it's color better - bonus - no hot utensils and kids get to wash up and I let them squeeze the berries with their hands, they love it! (And I love that even though they like the same thing day after day packed in their lunch, PB&J, I know that it's healthy homemade jam)! Make sure you bring that camera for all the berries that don't make it into Jonathan's basket!
ReplyDeleteUgh, I can't even begin to comprehend the difficulties you must encounter with him away for so long. I am envious of your strawberry picking, we still quite a ways away from this here. Enjoy!!
ReplyDeleteThey look terrific. I hope you and your family hang in there during this time.
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