right now

right now

Apr 30, 2012

pop, pop, POP!

That was the sound of the kitchen Saturday night.  How can I possibly narrow down these photos to just a few?  There's no way, so you will be subjected to all of them - I mean come on, they're strawberries!


Strawberry season is about 3 weeks ahead of normal this year.  The weather was great for picking, low 60's and cloudy and no mosquitoes.  I may have mentioned that I ripped my strawberry beds out about 3 years ago.  This is why...


Our immediate area is famous for strawberries, they love the beach apparently :)  Since my beds can't put out as much as we need and take up valuable space the rest of the year I leave this one to the local strawberry farmers.  In a 5 minute drive I can pick as much as I need, all organic and as fresh as they get.



Everyone could use a helping "hand" while picking berries!


Total picked: 21 lbs



The kids are getting better at picking now, aren't picking the biggest ones and are able to judge ripeness and move quicker this year.  You have to be quick to live in my house :)



Where to start?

No potato mashers or food processors to wash here, I told Finn to wash up and dive in "old skool" to get the job done quick - he loved it, but he loves anything to do with berries, he's probably take a bath in it if I told him to.



Next we were left with over a gallon of pure strawberry puree and 2 sheets of whole berries for the freezer.  



Time to jam.  If you haven't used Pomona's Pectin, you are missing out!  This is a two part mixture that uses calcium to activate the pectin, meaning you can make jam with no sugar!  If you are the type like me that just loves to pop straight berries into your mouth, then you appreciate a pure jam.  The amount of sugar in most jam recipes really freaks me out, so I love this stuff.  For those canning chemical compound nerds out there (like me?!) this is "LM" (low-methoxyl) pectin using dicalcium phosphate.  There are some other low/no sugar pectin powders out there, but they aren't quite the same, and the results aren't as reliable.  It can be hard to find, especially to have in stock this time of year but look in your local health/organic food store, and then remember next year to just order it online ahead of time - that's my lesson learned, I just got lucky as the only place in town to have it only had 2 boxes left.  The price here was $4.99, one box makes several batches.  This stuff can gel water!



I ended up with 13.5 pints of pure organic strawberry jam.  One batch was pure fruit and the other batch was made with just a touch (about 1/4 cup) organic cane sugar and drizzled with honey.



Had to come back and edit - what good is a jam post without a photo of the jam?



In all from 21 lbs of strawberries I ended up with 13.5 canned pints of jam, 2 gallon bags of frozen whole strawberries, 4 pints frozen pure strawberry puree and a tray of strawberry puree frozen into cubes and later into a freezer bag.  I find the cube size is perfect for adding into smoothies or flavoring a small batch of popsicles.  I always keep lots of puree in the freezer to add to our homemade strawberry ice cream too!


Pretty cost effective since even at the higher price this year of $1.59/lb we spent just over $33.00 on 21 pounds of berries turned into a year's worth of goodies and "fruit on a shelf"!

I hope you have all gotten your berry fix for now and can get those canning jars organized and supplies together, they will be coming soon to you if our early season is any indication!

Happy Picking!

















34 comments:

  1. We're just a few weeks behind you guys so we should be picking soon! YUM! I have a love affair with Polmona's as well...

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    1. Hi City Sister! I'm so glad I started using Pomona's, hope you have a great berry season!

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  2. It all looks delicious! I'll have to try Pomona's Pectin.

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    1. Sustainably, it's da bomb! Pretty foolproof for gelling, so that's always welcome in my kitchen LOL!

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  3. Man, am I glad I don't have to take care of THAT strawberry patch! Such an advantage of having an organic strawberry farm near you. Way to go and the price was sure right. It will be about two months here before we have a strawberry to taste let alone process up a bunch.

    Good tip on the Pomona's Pectin. I keep cutting the amount of sugar in my jam so that most of the time it's more like chunky syrup! But, hey, if it stays on the bread, it still works.

    Thanks for sharing all the great pics with us!

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    1. Mama Pea, that's one of the smaller patches here, it's one of about 20 larger strawberry producers in the area. Strawberries and blueberries are almost exclusively what our immediate area produces commercially here. Pomona's is great, especially since besides the amount of sugar in some jams, I just don't like the taste of sugary stuff much at all. I'm a chocolate girl only when it comes to sweet, anything else I run for the hills LOL, but love the tartness of berries, I have to hold myself back now from adding lemon juice from habit to counteract all the sugar, it will take awhile to get used to not having to do that anymore :)

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  4. YUM! I would have probably eaten a couple lbs of fresh strawberries while I was making jam.
    Great idea about making puree to use later. I usual core and cut up berries, sprinkle with a touch of sugar and freeze for putting on cakes and ice cream.

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    1. Sparkless, we definitely reserved a container of just fresh berries for snacking!

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  5. Sparkless, the puree is invaluable - you can make jam at a later date with frozen puree too if you didn't have time right away, it will taste just as fresh.

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  6. Thanks for mentioning that pectin! I made some peach jam for the first time last year, and was shocked at the amount of sugar the books were telling me to put in. Isn't fruit sweet enough on its own?

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    1. Prairie Cat, what's so sad is that there is a whole nation of kids that think fruit tastes like the stuff that comes out of a Smuckers jar!

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  7. Hmmm, I'm going to have to investigate that pectin. Thanks for the heads up!
    And I LOVE the 'au natural' berry processing. I bet my boys would love that job as well!!
    Judy

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    1. Judy, your boys would be awesome at it! While they were doing it, Loch was telling us a about "back in the day" they squished grapes with their feet, LOL...!

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  8. You were busy Erin! Everything looks really good and that pectin sounds perfect. I need to see if I can find it here...

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    1. Anke, I still can't believe I did all that in one day either LOL!

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  9. Can't wait for strawberries to come into season here,I might try my hand at some of that but just cut down the amount a little

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    1. Judy, I hope you have a great berry season up there!

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  10. We are way behind you on berries here, maybe June? That will give me time to research the Pomona's... Your pictures were amazing! I'm salivating for strawberries now.

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    1. Ruth, I hope your berries are great this year, I love photos of strawberries :)

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  11. Hey, I know that song! I love your ideas for all the ways to use berries. Our home berries get eaten as they ripen; we buy at the farmer's market because pick your own places aren't any less expensive, sadly.

    What great helpers you have.

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    1. Our pick your own prices are about the same as the Farmers Market too, but I think the market ones here are picked a day ahead so they aren't as fresh and nice, some I fear were picked even further in advance. I love berries too, just thought of another we do with those cubes - drop them into a batch of lemonade for a Strawberry Lemonade! Hmmm, if I think of any more I might have to go pick more :)

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  12. I wish you lived closer so I could get the hang of canning.

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  13. This post is just mean. If you do not have enough to share with the class. Oh I can not wait for a strawberry to be ripe. I can smell yours from this post. I love strawberries. ANd what a great price too!

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    1. Jane, LOL! I'm just getting you back for all those photos of your cookstove and "summer kitchen" I covet!

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  14. Great post and just in time. Curious where you found organic strawberries I'm looking for one here in VA. I think I found some @ cullipher farms in va beach

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    1. Hi Moosie! Yep, head to Cullipher, only a portion of their are organic and I think they are still progressing towards organic on the other half. You can always ask other farms too, it's not really important to me if they are "certified Organic" since the cost of doing so prohibits many small farmers from getting that certification but many farmers still use organic "practices" and that's good in my book :)

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  15. I sure hope our strawberries aren't that early-I've planned my entire upcoming trip based on them arriving at the usual time. Oh dear!

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    1. Yikes Sue you better check! Our paper is doing articles trying to get people out since so many people are ingrained to head out around Mother's Day but there are berries rotting on the vine by then here this year!

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  16. Ok about this pectin...Does the jam get darker as it sits on the shelf? What about the texture, runny? The only two times I've tried low sugar pectin/jam making it was really runny and very, very dark, almost brown. Albeit, I've never used that brand.

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    1. Melissa, this stuff is completely unlike the other (i.e. Ball Low/No Sugar Pectin - that stuff is a mess). This stuff literally will gel water if you used enough LOL. If used EXACTLY as directions state you should get fantastic results every time, it's about foolproof. No dark color either, good luck on your jamming!

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    2. the consistency is not runny at all, I can flip the spoon over and it hangs on :)

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    3. It's on my grocery list for this week! I've already processed a flat of strawberries, mostly frozen only a small batch of jam. I plan to try another batch of jam with this pectin soon!

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  17. Lovely post, Erin. Thanks for sharing about that pectin. I have wanted something like that for ever, and I can see amazing new possibilities opening up now! :)

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