The State of Sara: Strawberry Edition
Jun. 28th, 2009 11:34 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lady_saraiSo! It has been a fairly busy but productive weekend. Friday would have been my parents' 38th wedding anniversary, and Mom took the day off work. It also happened to be one of the only sunny days we've had all MONTH. (Seriously. Can count the sunny days in June on one hand.) So Mom and I took off and went out to Fort Williams (where Portland Head Light is. I love my lighthouses). We sat and read in the sun with the sea breeze and the ocean in view and it was very, very relaxing. Then we went out to eat. So Mom had a very nice anniversary, which was totally the point.
...Also, my brother has decided he is going to build a new front porch. We had a small one on the breezeway, but he kind of... tore it down. Using a crowbar and a chainsaw. But he hasn't bought the materials to build it yet, so... we kind of just have a four foot drop out the front door. But he says he's going to build it this week. We will see.
So, because of all the EPIC RAIN we've had this month, strawberry picking started later than usual--like, yesterday. Mom can't pick anymore, because of her arthritis. So I said I would. Um. Yeah.
I kind of wound up picking FIFTEEN POUNDS of berries. We went to Maxwell's, in Cape Elizabeth, out by the ocean. It was foggy and drizzly and there was a sea breeze, and I could hear the fog horns, which was kind of fun. Oh, and did I mention that I got up at 6 am? I did.
So here's the family history part of the story: my mother and my grandmother were SERIOUS berry pickers. Like--be there when the fields open, pick a million pounds, maybe go more than once. Pick the bushes clean, only pick the good berries, etc. The last two years are the ONLY two years of my entire life that I have not gone strawberry picking this way. And that was because in 2007 we were in Norway for picking season and last year I was teaching the Class From Hell and went straight from school to summer camp and summer school. :P Buuuut, anyway.
My point is that I was there at 7 am and by 9 I had picked 15 pounds of strawberries.
What is notable is that the year before she died, when she was EIGHTY-SEVEN, my grandmother went and picked THIRTY pounds of strawberries, so that she could give us one of the flats and keep one for herself. My grandmother was an amazing, amazing woman. And she always made strawberry jam. We made the raspberry jam and gave it to her, and she made the strawberry. Well, we have finally run out of the last of her strawberry jam. So we made jam.
We made so much jam.
We made six batches of jam. And these are the berries we had LEFT:
So. I also took pictures of the jam-making process.
First, we washed the berries and let them dry:
Then we mashed them! And followed the directions in the Certo box for freezer jam because it is INFINITELY easier than the cooked kind. ;)
But not TOO mashed.
And when ready, pour into jars!
Isn't it preeetty?
So... we kind of wound up with 12 twelve-ounce jars and 16 eight-ounce jars. That is a lot of strawberry jam.
And we still had half the strawberries left!! So today I made a pie:
Which looks very pretty but when we cut it was... mostly liquid. Sigh. Oh, well. (We didn't try the gelatinous recipe, because we didn't want to. I think this requires more experimenting.)
And, as ever, our cats are simply unimpressed.
Mo:
And my Chip:
And tomorrow I am off to![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
zoe_chan's for a few days, as we are going to SIX FLAGS, come rain or shine! ...We really do hope for sun, though.
...Also, my brother has decided he is going to build a new front porch. We had a small one on the breezeway, but he kind of... tore it down. Using a crowbar and a chainsaw. But he hasn't bought the materials to build it yet, so... we kind of just have a four foot drop out the front door. But he says he's going to build it this week. We will see.
So, because of all the EPIC RAIN we've had this month, strawberry picking started later than usual--like, yesterday. Mom can't pick anymore, because of her arthritis. So I said I would. Um. Yeah.
I kind of wound up picking FIFTEEN POUNDS of berries. We went to Maxwell's, in Cape Elizabeth, out by the ocean. It was foggy and drizzly and there was a sea breeze, and I could hear the fog horns, which was kind of fun. Oh, and did I mention that I got up at 6 am? I did.
So here's the family history part of the story: my mother and my grandmother were SERIOUS berry pickers. Like--be there when the fields open, pick a million pounds, maybe go more than once. Pick the bushes clean, only pick the good berries, etc. The last two years are the ONLY two years of my entire life that I have not gone strawberry picking this way. And that was because in 2007 we were in Norway for picking season and last year I was teaching the Class From Hell and went straight from school to summer camp and summer school. :P Buuuut, anyway.
My point is that I was there at 7 am and by 9 I had picked 15 pounds of strawberries.
What is notable is that the year before she died, when she was EIGHTY-SEVEN, my grandmother went and picked THIRTY pounds of strawberries, so that she could give us one of the flats and keep one for herself. My grandmother was an amazing, amazing woman. And she always made strawberry jam. We made the raspberry jam and gave it to her, and she made the strawberry. Well, we have finally run out of the last of her strawberry jam. So we made jam.
We made so much jam.
We made six batches of jam. And these are the berries we had LEFT:
So. I also took pictures of the jam-making process.
First, we washed the berries and let them dry:
Then we mashed them! And followed the directions in the Certo box for freezer jam because it is INFINITELY easier than the cooked kind. ;)
But not TOO mashed.
And when ready, pour into jars!
Isn't it preeetty?
So... we kind of wound up with 12 twelve-ounce jars and 16 eight-ounce jars. That is a lot of strawberry jam.
And we still had half the strawberries left!! So today I made a pie:
Which looks very pretty but when we cut it was... mostly liquid. Sigh. Oh, well. (We didn't try the gelatinous recipe, because we didn't want to. I think this requires more experimenting.)
And, as ever, our cats are simply unimpressed.
Mo:
And my Chip:
And tomorrow I am off to
zoe_chan's for a few days, as we are going to SIX FLAGS, come rain or shine! ...We really do hope for sun, though.
