Sorry for the patchy blogging. I've been focused on other things, and just not feeling it. Anyway, last week we went strawberry picking. I'm guessing you know the drill: pick, eat, make a mess of your face and hope that you pick more than you can eat.
It's amazing how much just one year's time can make. Last year, Calder was a 'baby', I feel he's still a baby (my baby) but really he's a toddler. Calder didn't need me to carry him in the carrier. He wasn't helpful in picking but he didn't care too much for eating the berries either. Calder's so touch and go with his like of fruit. Which is shocking to me - I thought everyone loved fruit. By the looks of his face you'd never know he hadn't been shoveling them in hand over fist. Calder did find great entertainment in the flag we needed to place where we stopped our picking. Putting it in the ground, pulling it out and putting it in somewhere else. All the while wearing the sunhat I made for him for our GA trip. It's reversible! Piper's version of the same hat has chickens on it. Smile!
Piper on the other hand loves strawberries. She ate loads, although not nearly as messily as Calder. Unlike last year, she ate only what she picked. And she ended up with berries in her basket. She was so proud. So was I. We were there longer than I expected the two littles to last. I was pleased and we left while it was still fun for them.
We're almost out of jam making that the big project with our pickings. Piper woke really early one morning asking if I'd get up with her. We started making a batch of jam. How excited was she when I set her up with her own knife and cutting board. I gave her the big berries and she hulled them and put them in her own measuring cup. She ended up with one and a half cups and I had to reclaim some of the berry left from her cutting. She and I enjoyed our time cleaning berries.
As I prepared for jam making I realized that my canner was in our storage unit. I didn't feel like going out there to search for it. Instead I searched online (what can't you find online) and followed this honey sweetened no canner recipe. Much to my dismay as I readied jars and lids I found that, save two, my jar rings are also in storage, probably with my canner. Needless to say I had to make do and use pint jars instead of the smaller jam jars and scrounge up all the store bought jar lids (you can reseal those!). It worked, we have 7 1/2 pints of strawberry jam on the shelf and a bit of whole berries in the freezer.
Wishing you a wonderful weekend and strawberry season.
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