As promised, today we went strawberry picking again. We got a much bigger score, and probably could have picked a ton more, but poor little Rowan was having none of it. This cold is awful, and totally kicking her (and our) butts. But, we did manage to walk away with a skimpy 20 pounds :) And, the best part, it only cost $19.95!! I think in the stores, they sell Oregon strawberries for around $4.00 a pound, so we probably saved somewhere close to $60 bucks picking our own. Amazing! Here are the little beauties:
And here is the reason we washed them all twice:
YUCK! After washing, they all went onto cookie sheets, into the freezer to partially freeze, then into bags to be frozen. My hope is that we can have enough to make smoothies with this summer, and last us through the winter. I have really great memories from my childhood of getting a big bowl of strawberries from the freezer in mid December, when fresh fruit was a distant memory. I hope that we can do that this year, since we finally bought a chest freezer for the garage. We are going to go at least once more next week, with Aimee and the boys, to pick enough to make jam. I haven't made anything but freezer jam before, so I am really looking forward to my very first canning experiance. I love this time of year! I bought this book the other day, and I have been positively drooling about all the possibilities. I could make my own ketchup for goodness sake!!!! Yes...I am that big of a nerd :)
And here is the reason we washed them all twice:
YUCK! After washing, they all went onto cookie sheets, into the freezer to partially freeze, then into bags to be frozen. My hope is that we can have enough to make smoothies with this summer, and last us through the winter. I have really great memories from my childhood of getting a big bowl of strawberries from the freezer in mid December, when fresh fruit was a distant memory. I hope that we can do that this year, since we finally bought a chest freezer for the garage. We are going to go at least once more next week, with Aimee and the boys, to pick enough to make jam. I haven't made anything but freezer jam before, so I am really looking forward to my very first canning experiance. I love this time of year! I bought this book the other day, and I have been positively drooling about all the possibilities. I could make my own ketchup for goodness sake!!!! Yes...I am that big of a nerd :)