Strawberries!!

We had a very, very rainy Spring and early Summer here in Minnesota. I'm not sure if that's the reason why strawberries were so late this year, but they were. This was a really, really good thing for us. We usually have good intentions for going strawberry-picking, but the usual season here in the Cities (mid to late June) is just generally a really busy time for us. We have never actually managed to pick strawberries here. When we have gone picking, we've gone up north, where the season is later. We like to go to Finke's Berry Farm near Carleton, MN. They have tons of berries which are not sprayed with chemicals at all, and the later season suits us much better.

This year, we didn't get around to thinking of picking until late JULY. The season was so late that we could still go to Finke's and get plenty of berries. They were even discounted, because it was the end of the season. We had a really fun night after work one Tuesday driving to the farm, picking until dark, and then driving back home. My muscles got really sore and stayed that way for the better part of a week, though.

We spent $20 on the berries, and we ended up making traditional strawberry rhubarb jam, freezer strawberry rhubarb jam, and we even tried strawberry syrup. The jams were wonderful, as usual, and the syrup, well....that was an experience, anyway. And we still have berries left in the freezer. Not bad for a night worth of picking and $20.

mixing strawberry mash and rhubarb mash for strawberry-rhubarb freezer jam

filling freezer jam jars

getting the regular jam ready for processing in the canner

finished jars of freezer jam