Strawberry Season

Strawberry season is almost over here in the Piedmont of North Carolina. Last weekend I bought 7 gallons of strawberries (for $10/gallon) from the farmers market. These strawberries, along with many other local strawberries that were for sale, are pesticide free. That's fantastic since conventional strawberries are listed as one of the "dirty dozen" (fruits and vegetables most highly contaminated with pesticides).

I'm stocking the freezer so that we'll have strawberries to enjoy the rest of the year. We don't buy strawberries in December. December strawberries come from far away places and because of that, they're picked when they're pink in order to make the journey. A pink, hard strawberry is not a strawberry as far as I'm concerned. Nothing compares to the flavor of strawberries picked at the peak of the season.

I froze 5 1/2 gallons of whole strawberries. I froze them whole this year so I can use them in smoothies, baked goods, or puree them to make freezer jam later in the year.

Come January, it may be winter outside, but it will always be summer in our freezer.

Wordless Wednesday - Done!

42 quarts of applesauce (peach, strawberry, cherry, blueberry, and cinnamon)

Up To My Eyeballs In Apples

Ever since we went apple picking, 2 weeks ago, I've been steadily trying to turn 3 of the 6 bushels into applesauce. It takes me about an hour to peel and chop enough apples to fill my 4 quart crock pot. I have about a bushel left.

I usually freeze my applesauce in quart containers (yogurt containers) but this year my chest freezer is full of chicken (a good problem to have). I decided to can my applesauce this year. This is the first canning I've done on my own. I can vaguely remember canning with my mom as a teenager and I helped my sister can venison during my last visit. So, with my sister's advice and a wealth of online information on how to can, I got started. It's actually very easy to water-bath can. Once I had everything laid out and ready to go, it only takes a few minutes to get everything in the jars and into the canner. My kitchen has looked like this many times in the past two weeks.

I love looking at the processed jars. I've made many types of applesauce and I love looking at the different colors.

So far I've made strawberry, blueberry, cinnamon, "apple pie" (extra cinnamon, nutmeg, and a bit of sugar), and peach and cherry are in the canner right now.

Look how deep purple the blueberry applesauce is. I don't really have recipes for the fruit applesauce... it's more of a method.

When fruit was in season this spring/summer, I would buy in bulk, puree it, and freeze it in 2 cup bags. When my apples are almost done cooking in the crock pot, I put in one of the frozen chunks of fruit. Most of the time 2 cups of fruit per 3 or 4 quarts of applesauce is enough but sometimes I had more. I also add a bit of water, pinch of salt, and other spices depending on the flavor I'm making. I've added about 1/2 cup of sugar to some of my big batches of applesauce because my apples are a bit more tart this year then in years past. I don't like a very sweet applesauce though so 1/2 cup has been plenty for a 4 quart batch.

I can't wait to show you all of my jars lined up when I'm done processing them all. Now, we don't really have to open them, do we? All this work peeling, chopping, stirring, canning... just to pop open a jar and eat it so quickly... Oh well, this applesauce tastes so good that it's definitely worth it!

Just A Few Apples.....

Saturday morning, we drove up to Ararat, VA to visit Windy Hill Orchards. It was an almost chilly 70* at 9am and a perfectly clear day. It was a beautiful orchard in the hills. I picked Windy Hill because they use a low-spray approach and integrated pest management. This means fewer pesticides are used and therefore the apples are healthier for us to eat. The You-Pick apples are only $10 a bushel so it's quite a deal. We had the orchard to ourselves most of the time. I guess not many people think to go apple picking at 9am on a Saturday morning.
Apple picking makes Charlotte go a little nuts.....

Maybe it was the fresh air and sunshine....

The kids thought the long-handled picker was a lot of fun.

Jon took this amazing picture. I love when he thinks out of the box and takes such imaginative pictures.

After he took a few photos, Jon put on the apple bag and got to work. He's quite a fast apple picker.

Evan got bored with picking and decided to make his own game with the bushel boxes.

Windy Hill had so many apple varieties. It was hard to keep them all straight.

Look at this gorgeous Red Delicious apple! I shined it up on my shirt.

Most of the trees were loaded with fruit.

This was the biggest apple I had ever seen. I'm not sure if you can tell but this apple is bigger then a softball.

Whew.... after almost 2 hours, we had 6 bushels of apples to take home with us plus a gallon of apple cider for the freezer. We got 2 bushels of Stayman, 2 bushels of Granny Smith, and 2 bushels of Red Delicious. With the price of $10 a bushel, I figured the more apples, the better!

Now comes the work. I'm storing the 2 bushels of Granny Smiths and 1 bushel of Stayman in the back of my mom's garage where it stays nice and cool. I'll bake with those apples throughout the fall and winter. The other 3 bushels will be made into applesauce and apple butter.

It was a beautiful, fun morning!

Stocking The Freezer With Blueberries

A few weeks ago I went to the farmer's market with the only goal of buying lots and lots of blueberries. I think I succeeded. My favorite blueberry guy at the farmer's market said that early August would be the best time to stock the freezer because they'll be lowest in price. I bought 2 flats of blueberries for $36. That's 24 pints (3 gallons).
Evan thought he had died and gone to heaven.

I bagged 1 flat of berries and froze them whole. We'll have plenty of berries for blueberry muffins and pancakes all winter long.

I pureed the other flat and bagged in 2 cup amounts to be used to make jam and blueberry applesauce in the coming months.

Peas and Cherries

Before we went on our trip to PA earlier this month, I picked my shelling peas and the overgrown sugar snap peas. I could have gotten more shelling peas if the weather hadn't gotten so hot but they gave up after a week full of 90* temperatures. I love shelling peas but I get a lot more for my time and money by growing sugar snaps since you can eat the whole pod. Next year I'll only grow sugar snaps.

My sad little harvest yielded 2 family sized servings of peas- blanched and put in the freezer. I can't imagine the garden space I'd have to devote to peas just to get enough to fill our freezer for the year.

After I was done shelling peas, I started pitting the 12 pounds of cherries I bought on sale for $1.99/lb. It took me 2 hours to pit them all. They filled my largest bowl. In the freezer I put 2- 2 cup bags of whole cherries and 7 - 2cup bags of pureed cherries that I'll make into jam when I have the time. I wish I had more whole cherries frozen. Next year I'll have to buy a few more. I love cherries in my oatmeal.

Cherries!

This past Friday, Whole Foods had their sweet cherries on sale for 1.99/lb!! I don't usually shop at Whole Foods because the prices are insanely high but I couldn't pass up this sale. I bought 12 pounds of cherries.

These will be pitted (thankfully I just bought a cherry pitter) and made into jam, frozen whole, and pureed and frozen to use to make cherry applesauce this fall.

I had almost given up on getting cherries this year since the you-pick orchard that I was planning to visit, is an hour away and between the heat and our busy schedule, I hadn't found time to go pick.

I thought I loved cherries.... Evan was eating them as fast as I could pit them yesterday. He has yet to meet a fruit that he doesn't adore.

Strawberry Season

A week and a half ago, I bought 6 gallons of strawberries at the farmer's market at $8 a gallon (a pretty good price for around here). I'm glad I bought them when I did because it seems strawberry season is ending a bit early this year due to the early heat and lack of rain we had this spring.

I made 3 batches of freezer jam with about 2 of the gallons.



With most of the rest of the strawberries, I pureed them in the food processor and bagged them in 2 cup amounts and froze them. The strawberry puree will be used to make mixed berry jams when other berries are in season or to add to applesauce in the fall. I froze 10 two cup bags.



I saved one gallon of strawberries for us to enjoy fresh. And enjoy we did! This is Charlotte's strawberry shortcake. She told me exactly how she wanted it assembled and was very specific about only 1 strawberry on top.

I think she approves.

A Great Weekend With Family

The weekend before last (nothing like prompt blog posts), my mother and father-in-law and my sister-in-law came for a visit. They live about 8 hours away but never seem to mind a trip down to spend time with their grandkids.





My in-laws live near Milroy Maple Syrup farm. They brought us 3 gallons of maple syrup and we only paid $36 a gallon! I'm hoping the 3 gallons lasts us a whole year. They were also nice enough to make a second stop on their way down to bring me maple cream. For those who haven't tried it before, it's spreadable maple syrup. I toast homemade bread, top it with butter, and then a light layer of maple cream. It's heaven. Let's just say I'm hiding the jar of maple cream in the fridge so no one else can find it.

After opening a gallon of syrup, it's best to keep it fresh one of two ways (though I guess there could be more ways but these are the two that I know). The first way is to can it and the second way is to freeze it. I have the freezer space so I freeze the syrup. It keeps really well this way.

I made a big breakfast of local sausage, homemade peach and strawberry applesauce, local eggs, and of course pancakes so we could enjoy the fresh syrup.

My kiddos are lucky enough to be thoroughly spoiled by their grandparents and aunt. I'm not sure how the Easter Bunny can compete with the lovely gifts they brought.

Aunt Sue made this beautiful dress for Charlotte. It even has a matching purse!

Last Saturday's weather was amazing so we took advantage of it by getting some outside chores marked off of our to do list. We got out the shade sail that we usually put up each year around this time. Because we live in a neighborhood without any trees near the houses, the sun gets very intense in the summer. Our living room has a western exposure and gets very hot in the summer without the shade sail up.

It feels cooler already.

Jon tackled our back gate. It's in need of a paint job. He'll get to that in a few more months but for now, he needed to fix a few pickets and the support board.

He did a great job. Grammy soaks in the sun while holding nails for Jon.

I should know by now that when I just mention a project to my father-in-law hoping for a little advice that not only will I get great advice but he also will go ahead in completing the project in a way that exceeds my every expectation.

I was given these vinyl fence panels by a friend's neighbor who was replacing their fence and was going to throw them out. There was enough fencing to go around my back garden but I wasn't sure how to go about putting them up. I was going to settle for some twine and tomato stakes. I should have known better.

What I ended up with was a beautiful fence that will last for years. He was even able to use a hinge from our back gate so that I'll be able to get into my garden easily. I got very lucky when it came to inlaws.

Now I have to grow a garden worthy of the beautiful fence!

I put down a fluffy layer of new pine straw(needles) in the front flowerbeds.

**My picture uploader is making mad so I'll upload the picture of the finished fence in the morning**

The view of the back garden from under the shade sail. Jon got to cut the grass for the first time this spring. Cutting grass is one of the few household chores he enjoys doing.

It was such a nice day that we all ate dinner outside.

It was a great weekend.