On Saturday, we went to a local farm to see if they still had some strawberries. Did they ever! We picked for about 3.5 hours. Well, Jim picked . . . I helped some, but mostly I was back and forth between the berry patch and the car with the kids, for snacks, nursing breaks, diaper changes, etc. The kids enjoyed watching one of the tractors and the ladies on the back putting in plants, in a neighboring field.
And I tried to get a picture of me with the kiddos while Jim was working, but my self-taken picture skills are sadly lacking. :)
Josiah hung out in the sling most of the time, nice and cozy.
We filled up 3 of these large cardboard flats, plus another 2 quart size containers, for a total of about 30 lbs. of berries. (Yes, we're slightly crazy.)
So of course we spent several hours on Sunday hulling berries, and then I spent all day yesterday making this:
Forty-seven beautiful jars of jam! Phew! I used up all of my jam jars and still had 2+ gallon size ziploc bags of berries left over to freeze. I am thrilled to pieces to have all this lovely jam in my cupboard . . . and also very happy to have yesterday behind me. :) Jam-making is really quite fun, but a little stressful with 3 little ones to look after. Thank God for my mom, who came over for the afternoon to help out!The blueberry and blackberry season is still ahead of us; looks like I'll have to buy some more jars. :)
8 comments:
You are so adventurous! Wow, I'm very impressed that you canned so much jam and did so much hulling. Do you do it all by hand or do you have some kind of kitchen utensil that works well?
Wow, that looks delicious! You must be tired. Canning is hot, hard work- if I spend all day on my feet I'm wiped out, much less while rending to three littles!
Well, you've officially inspired me. If you can make that many jars of jam with THREE little ones around, I can certainly try some canning before baby #2 arrives. Great job, Carrie!!
Looks delicious! Does canned jam have less sugar than freezer jam? My mother-in-law keeps us well stocked with the freezer jam.
I can't wait for blueberries, either!!!
Glad you got so much jam put up, we have never really done that for the berries were always gone too fast unless we saved them just for that purpose...
I love jam making and did some plum/pear/blackberry this week (called "Purple Jam" by my daughter back from Uni). I take my hat off to you making so much jam with a new little one in your brood. Love your photos.
Wowie. You have a beautiful family and your lifstyle sound so wonderful. Nice job on the jam, too!
Nancy
Are you doing a jam giveaway? Hee, hee - I'm just kidding. Great job on all of your hard work. Homemade strawberry jam is so incredibly yummy. You'll enjoy it when winter rolls around:).
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