After a cold spring which put the growing season back by two weeks, strawberries are finally ripe. I’ve spent some time with our daughter and the kids at the u-pick. The berries are delicious, so fresh and juicy. The kids have eaten pounds of them over a few days.
It was fun to watch them learn the art of strawberry picking, such as checking the berries are fully ripe before you pick. They soon learned the deep red ones are the juiciest and to avoid any which are overripe.
Owen, at two, learned to pick the berries and how to take off the green leaves before he ate them. We should have weighed him going in and coming out of the patch.
My husband and I ate some fresh and then I made jam. Three bottles were a lot of work on a hot summer day but I didn’t have room to freeze them and I couldn’t stop myself from picking so many.
I also picked the rhubarb in our back yard. Again I made jam, just three bottles. One granddaughter likes strawberry jam, the other rhubarb. I invited them over to make tea biscuits with me and we sampled the jam.
The oldest, Sylvie, said as she finished her fourth biscuit, slathered in rhubarb jam, “I’ll have to take a bottle of that home with me.”
To which Caitlin replied, “And I want strawberry.”
It will be a busy few days around here making jam. We’ll try a combination of strawberry rhubarb this time.