Strawberry Picking

One of our favorite pastimes: strawberry picking! We had a wet spring, so Rudd Farms, our usual place, wasn't doing pick-your-own, so we went to our backup: Ingram Farms in High Point. The're certainly as good as Rudd, just a little further.

 They definitely had some good looking berries! 

 And good-tasting, too!

We picked 5 buckets of berries (about 30 pounds) and brought them home to make jelly. Altogether, we made about 60 jars of jelly, which should last us through the year.

Strawberry Picking

Some years we make it out in time to pick strawberries. The growing season is very short and is often made shorter by bad weather in the spring. This year, however, we made it out and got a whole ton of berries!

 All the kids got in on the act and we picked 5 full buckets; enough for almost 40 pints of jam! 

Strawberry Picking 2016

We took advantage of a beautiful morning (actually the only one that week without rain) to pick a few strawberries.

 The blooms were everywhere and just as pretty as can be.

 The kids paired up and worked to fill their buckets. Gabe and Ezra worked one row.

 Olivia and Emma worked another. Emma had quite a good eye for spotting great berries.

 And Irene followed me with the bucket. She wouldn't let me put any in it, though... She insisted that I hand them to her so she could put them in. 

 After she and I filled our bucket, she went to trail after Gabe for a while and point out what he missed. :)

We got a decent haul for less that an hour's work. Sadly, they ate them all within a week. :)

Strawberry Picking

I took the kids to pick strawberries at Rudd Farm and we were just in time. The season was nearly at an end. This is the third or fourth year we've done it and this year everyone was very helpful. the older 4 picked while Irene carried the bucket. She was pretty proud of herself for picking up a full bucket. :)

 To keep the other kids picking Olivia instituted a rule that you have to put five strawberries in the bucket before you can eat one strawberry. It was pretty effective.

Sadly, I forgot my camera, so I had to take pictures on my phone and therefore missed a few great opportunities for pictures. By the end, we'd picked our 4 gallons and probably eaten an additional one alone the way. :)

Strawberry Picking with the Cousins

My sister, Danielle, is in town for a couple of weeks with her adorable twins, Max and Vivi. We invited them out to pick strawberries with us at Ingram Farm in High Point. Ingram's is fun for the kids, not only for their strawberries, but also for the goats that the kids can feed and pet.

 

Max got a good chokehold on a goat.

Even our niece, Rooney, got into the act.

Emma wanted to help, too.

Strawberry Picking

We took the kids strawberry picking twice this season and got a good haul of berries. Since we still have 8 jars of jam from last year, we're just freezing them whole this year to use for smoothies and snacks, not to mention just letting the kids eat their fill. 

Ezra may carry a basket, but it never seems to fill up at all...

This migrant worker was clearly way pregnant and carrying one on her back. We suspect she'll just have the baby in the shade and come back to work.

Olivia actually picked more than she ate this year. Though she did wind up wearing quite a bit of them.

Gabe liked to point out where the really ripe ones were. Didn't pick them, but he'd point them out for me.

Strawberry Jam

We decided to try our hand at canning some strawberry jam this year, since that's considered one of the easiest was to get introduced to canning and preserving.

See Ezra's empty bucket? It stayed that way. The kid ate every berry he put his hands on. He's quite good at spotting perfectly ripe berries...:)

We started out by going to Ingram Farm in High Point to pick our own strawberries. The kids always enjoy the work since they get to eat as many strawberries as they possibly can. :)

Here we are waiting for the tractor to take us back to the barn with our 10 pounds of strawberries!

Once home, we hulled and washed our berries...

Then Olivia and Rebecca mashed them to pulp.

After adding some pectin, sugar and lemon juice, and 10 minutes in a hot water bath, the canning is done.

We wound up with 26 half-pint jars of jam. We made 3 different batches; one with the normal amount of sugar, one with half the sugar and one with about 1/3 the sugar. Rebecca sampled each batch and pronounced the half- and 1/3-sugar batched to be excellent. The fully-sugared batch was still very good, but very, very sweet. We used the Pioneer Woman's recipe (Part 1 and Part 2) and are pleased with the results. As an aside, we did a little figuring and found that is cost us roughly $1.75 per jar, including the jar and lid. Considering it is all-natural with organic strawberries and organic sugar, that's a pretty good deal for a half-pint.

Strawberry Picking

The Fam went strawberry picking and had a great time! :) We picked two baskets worth of beautiful strawberries and I'm sure the kids ate at least that many...