We went out last night to
South Windermere Gardens to pick some strawberries. Their early crop had been wiped out by hail but the remaining berries are plentiful and big.
The one challenge is the bugs. The mosquitos were very, very thick (like picking berry's in northern Saskatchewan bush). I'm pretty hardy when it comes to bugs but I used some spray last night (first time in more than a decade) and it was still pretty bad. Jess was a total trooper and we managed to come away with about three pails of berries before I finally gave up.
I froze some of the berries for a winter treat. We then started making preserves. I decided to use a package of pectin to skip the "make applesauce" step of the more traditional recipe. The result was more than 2 litres of preserves. These are called "strawberries on top" as the berries float up and all appear to have been successful. We tried a bit of the leftovers on some ice cream and it was good. A bit sweeter than I might like.
Up next: The rest of the berries are in the fridge--a few for dessert tonight and the rest of jamming tomorrow at lunch. I'l going to go back to the old fashioned "fruit, sugar and boil the hell out of it" recipe. If the sun shines, we'll have a full weekend of catching up on yardwork. And i think there is a zucchini ready to harvest!
The one challenge is the bugs. The mosquitos were very, very thick (like picking berry's in northern Saskatchewan bush). I'm pretty hardy when it comes to bugs but I used some spray last night (first time in more than a decade) and it was still pretty bad. Jess was a total trooper and we managed to come away with about three pails of berries before I finally gave up.
I froze some of the berries for a winter treat. We then started making preserves. I decided to use a package of pectin to skip the "make applesauce" step of the more traditional recipe. The result was more than 2 litres of preserves. These are called "strawberries on top" as the berries float up and all appear to have been successful. We tried a bit of the leftovers on some ice cream and it was good. A bit sweeter than I might like. 
Up next: The rest of the berries are in the fridge--a few for dessert tonight and the rest of jamming tomorrow at lunch. I'l going to go back to the old fashioned "fruit, sugar and boil the hell out of it" recipe. If the sun shines, we'll have a full weekend of catching up on yardwork. And i think there is a zucchini ready to harvest!
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