On Sunday morning I got to sneak away for a couple of hours with my mom for some strawberry picking. I took the girls earlier in the week but they only lasted as long as it took to fill up their bellies so another trip was needed. I brought home six quarts and I wish I had an other six.
Last year I didn't get the jam making courage until blueberry season but this year I was poised to begin earlier. Yesterday I made my first batch of strawberry jam.
I am happy to say that we made it through the fall, winter, and spring without purchasing any jam. I opened the last jar of peach jam just over a week ago. We ate all our own, supplemented with a couple of gifted jars of both homemade grape jelly and strawberry rhubarb jam. Not bad eh?
I would love to think that maybe I can get another batch put up before these sweet red berries are gone for another year but I will have to play that one by ear. It's pretty exciting to start the winter stores now. We have fairly recently used up the last of our frozen tomatoes and pesto. I say we do have some delicious but not very popular pickled beans still taking up precious shelf space though. This year I want to try canning tomato sauce. Have any of you done this? It seems a bit more risky and you need to use citric acid to maintain the acidity. Oh I have some time before I have to really worry about that as the tomato plants are just now starting to produce their little yellow flowers.
Do you have any plans for preserving food this season? Please do tell!