Yesterday, our family went to a you-pick farm and we (I) picked ten pounds of strawberries. Today, in 100F heat, I’ve cooked and processed two batches of jam. I don’t even like strawberry jam all that much. I really don’t know what possessed me. I will give a lot of it away, and give it at Christmas in gift boxes as I usually do.
I will make more jams throughout the Summer and preserve whatever tickles my fancy. I just love Summer.
I love jams, jellies, pickles and such, but I’m not good at making them. I need to learn from my mom, but I keep putting it off.
My favorites are her hot pickles, watermelon rind pickles, and crab apple jelly. But strawberry jam is great too!
I adore strawberry jam. I’m jealous. I couldn’t get to the farmer’s market on Saturday because I felt like crap. First one I’ve missed in I don’t know how long.
I wish I’d been there! I love strawberry jam and it’s always fun to hang out at your place.
I have no idea what I’m going to be doing for summer foods here. I’m sure there’s a farmer’s market nearby, though I don’t know where.
I did splurge on 3/4lb of Rainer Cherries the other day. I have no idea where in the season we are for those things, but at least I will have gotten one batch this summer.
I’ll send you a jar, or maybe drop one off if we head that way this summer.
Blue Kangarooooo, I thought of you while I was making it! I was thinking how we hadn’t made any plain strawberry last fall.
Ginger, this is two threads you have now made me envious!
First with the spinning, and now with the jam.
Any suggestions on how to make my husband understand why I’m making jam right in the middle of moving day?
“Some crazy bitch in Maryland made me do it!”
And then you’re off the hook. 
Re the spinning, I’ve had to take a hiatus. My wrist started to ache a little and I have an old ow (Dequervain’s tendonitis) that I didn’t want to aggravate. Then, I got busy doing some charity crochet (chemo caps, then face cloths) and now I’m crocheting yoga mat bags and grocery bags for sale, and haven’t got back to it. In time, in time…
The crazy thing is, he’d believe it. I’m prone to go off and do something because I either read it here or in a blog.
-Thus my spinning dream. We bought a wheel at a flea market, but it needs parts.
Frakking moving…
Ow on the DT, I notice when I crochet too long my wrists start to ache, I’m sure it has something to do with my carpal tunnel. Surgery works great, unless you do something you normally shouldn’t anyhow. I hope spinning doesn’t aggravate it too much.
Yeah, we didn’t make any plain strawberry because you’re not a fan. I love plain strawberry, though the blackberry-strawberry jam was good too.
Oddly enough, though, in the people I gave jam to as gifts, the “Harvest Jam” was the hands-down favorite. Did you have anyone all over that too?
We like it, but I haven’t had any ooohs and aaahs from anyone else. Maybe it was the tart from the apple?
I suspect so, though I don’t know. It’s pretty good, and it definitely makes the strawberry-blackberry seem quite sweet in comparison.
Spring/summer’s coming slowly here in Mid-Michigan. Not much heat, lots of rain, and now there’s a tomato scare (“Salmonella Outbreak Linked to Raw Tomatoes”). Still, I’ve planted my own tomato plants, as well as green beans (bush this year, as opposed to runner beans) and zucchini (only one hill this time!)
I’m watching the ads for pick-it-yourself farms, so I can put up jelly. I can’t wait!
Love, Phil
Nice Greg Brown reference! (Although I just discovered that he didn’t write that song, but it sure seems to fit his style.)
I’ve completely changed my approach to strawberry jam over the last ten years or so. I used to call strawberry jam a labor of love, because you pick the berries and then cook them down during the hottest days of the year.
I first started my transition by picking, cleaning and hulling the berries, and then freezing them to make later in the winter. Another advantage to this is that you can mix two or more fruits that don’t ripen at the same time. I make a mean strawberry peach jam.
And then last year I went out and spent two hours picking a flat of berries in the heat of summer. They weren’t enough, so the next weekend I went to the same farmstand and bought pre-picked berries, and paid a whopping $6 more for the same flat. And they were much bigger and juicier. I haven’t worked for $3 an hour since I was in college a long time ago. I’ll be buying my berries pre-picked from now on.
I’m a lazy cuss and will gladly pay the extra when it comes to Saskatoon berries or raspberries… but strawberries are simple and quick. And BIG, these ones.
I’ve made just the two batches, and I’ve frozen the rest. I just don’t like strawberry jam, so I’ll make it later on along with other fruits. I’ve already given away six jars of the stuff, and holy dinah are people appreciative. Some people are just astounded that ‘people’ still make jam nowadays.
Peach jam!
I’ve never been to a “pick your own” anything farm. Out here it’d probably just be chile, and I don’t think I want to do that.
My mom used to have me skim the “scum” off the top - we’d put it in a bowl and she’d let us eat it - it was so sweet though.
There were 4 of us kids and my mom for the pick-your-own farm, and we worked pretty hard - one time we had picked so much in an hour, my mom had to go back home to get more money to pay for it.
Almost as much fun as a maple “sugaring” where we would take the fresh syrup and pour it on snow to make maple licorice candy. I thought we were so cool for doing it, until I read a “Little House on the Prairie” chapter and realized that people had been doing it for years.
Ginger, can you tell us the name and location of the place you went? I am trying to find a place to pick strawberries in the DC/MD/VA area. Thanks!
Back when the kids were young, we’d drive from Queens out to Long Island. The area right around Brookhaven National Laboratories had a bunch of pick yerself strawberry fields.
We’d pick em, then make strawberry or strawberry/blueberry jam. Used to eat a decent amount of it, we all did. Then in August I’d do my spiced peach jam.
Haven’t made any in a few years. Mmmmm. Jam.
Cartooniverse
Ginger, don’t think we don’t appreciate the Greg Brown reference.
Come taste a little of the summer,
My Gran’ma put it up in jars.
Spavined Gelding, I was hoping some of you would get it. It makes me smile that you and Plynck did.
nyctea, it was Harman’s Farm on Churchville Road between Churchville and Havre de Grace. There’s also another up there with the same prices, www.bradsproduce.com.