The Fruits of our Labor

Even though Krause's pies are so good, I told Don that we should be getting the rest of his credit in bulk berries and then making our own goodies. Today he brought home two flats of strawberries, about 40 pounds worth and we spent the afternoon processing them.

We got two batches of jam, enough prepared strawberries to make four more batches of jam (I figure that will be a nice winter activity), 6 containers of sliced strawberries in syrup (to be used over crepes, pancakes, or shortcakes) and two gallon bags of whole strawberries for smoothies, etc. We were so thankful that the weather was cool and damp again today. Jamming in the heat of the summer is no fun!

I hope to do the same thing with raspberries (on our old property, but I plan on picking them) and blackberries (we'll get from Krause's). We have a gazillion blueberries this year, but those will go directly into the freezer.