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| Mmm! Strawberries. |
Yesterday was the last day of school. Today, Grandma asked if we wanted to go pick some strawberries. We decided it was a perfect day to do it, the weather was beyond perfect. We climbed into the van: Big Bro, Lil Sis, me, Grandma and Grandpa, and drove to Pomykala Farm. Grandpa reminisced how he used to go strawberry picking with his mother once school was out and she would make strawberry jam. Well, history tends to repeat itself, and in this case it's in a good way.
At Pomykala Farm we were warmly greeted by our friends, the owners of the farm. We also saw some friends from playgroup and got to ride in the golf cart out to the part of the field with the best picking. Lil Sis ended up loving the ride, though she was tentative at first. She's getting braver.
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| Big Bro "driving" the cart |
We picked 10 pounds of strawberries to bring home. Big Bro picked his very own basket, Lil Sis picked her own basket. She probably picked two baskets worth but ate one of them on the job.
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| Lil Sis working hard picking |
Next came making homemade strawberry jam. A first for me!
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| Note: Big Bro is wearing a red shirt so that he won't get his Wild Kratts clothes stained with strawberry juice. |
The kids went to play at Grandma's house so I hulled the strawberries, smashed them with a potato masher, then added lemon juice and brought them to a rolling boil.
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| Mashing berries |
Next I poured in seven, yes count 'em, 7 cups of sugar! I'm just following the recipe. When that was once again at a rolling boil I added the pectin and was able to spoon it into nine jelly jars, and part of a tenth jar.
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| Look at all that sugar--2 bowls worth! |
I think I will have to make another batch tomorrow. Maybe that will get us through a years worth of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. There's always other jellies to make with other seasonal fruits too. This is just the beginning of a beautiful season.
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| The partial jar of jam |
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