Last day to get to the Pick-Your-Own strawberries before school is out so I booked an early slot for this morning. Unfortunately rain was forecast and I was lucky to get half my basket filled before it began to drizzle. I managed to (mostly) fill my basket before it changed to a heavy downpour - I could have squeezed in a few more berries but decided to sprint to the car instead!
The farm is quite a ways out of the city and has a market as well so I popped in for a bag of new potatoes and some of their fabulous butter tarts. I stopped off at a coffee shop on the way home and ate one of the tarts with a big cup of decaf. My treat for enduring the damp conditions. Then picked up extra sugar for making jam.
The berries were quite big and juicy but I was disappointed that the basket was smaller than last year - and cost more! I will just make one batch of jam, strawberry rhubarb this year - I still have several jars from last summer - and eat the rest. A strawberry rhubarb crumble is on my list of ways to use them up.
I got quite soaked running a few more errands on the way home (trying to conserve fuel by doing everything in one trip) but once I was dried off and changed into dry clothes I got cracking on the jam making. Here's the result.
I was surprised how many jars I managed to fill - and had some surplus. I may not have boiled it for long enough so it will remain to be seen whether it sets properly.
Now everything is cleaned up and the kitchen is back to rights so I can relax knowing I am well supplied with jam for the coming year!
Yum. Homemade jam. The only time I attempted jam I halved everything except the cooking time. I ended up with toffee!
ReplyDeleteIt's so hard to tell when it is set until you actually pour it into the jars.
DeleteI'm glad you had a good time, despite the drizzle, and the jam looks wonderful - home made strawberry jam is like eating sunshine, I think. So good. xx
ReplyDeleteIt will cheer me up in the long dark days of winter!
DeleteOh yum to fresh picked strawberries (it seemed to be a bumper crop year in many pick your own in our region). I've noticed many things are in smaller containers & still higher prices. Oh strawberry rhubarb jam, not had but I now want. I keep saying I'm going to follow the butter tart trail ... do you like nuts in your butter tarts or just raisins. Me I'll take either.
ReplyDeleteMu usual preference is raisins but I chose pecan yesterday as they looked the best.
DeletePicking the berries and making the jam - that's above and beyond when you throw in the rain. Kudos to you.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Suzanne. It's usually a fun experience - not so much yesterday!
DeleteOK ... what's a butter tart?
ReplyDeleteSee today's post. You probably call them by a different name.
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