The end of June to the first couple of weeks of July means strawberries. And the area where I live has lots of strawberries to offer. Pick your own or ready picked.
For the past 20 years or more, the town has held a Strawberry Festival that happens on the Canada Day July 1 weekend. Jam competitions, strawberry pie competitions, a Strawberry Parade, concerts, fireworks, and Main Street is closed for whole day, lined with booths and entertainment. This year was no exception.... probably 20,000 people showed up to enjoy the day!
Meanwhile, I got my strawberry jam inspiration back after a couple of seasons of no jam making. First a couple of flats of fruit from one of our local farms.
Then clean them, take the leaves off and squish them with a potato masher in my special jam bucket. The fruit was really juicy this year, probably because we've had lots of rain.
And then a couple of hours spent washing jars, warming the jars in the oven, stirring sugar and strawberries on a hot stove until just the right consistency, and here's the end result.
Enough to make the sweet taste of strawberries last all winter.
YoungerSon and family have already finished off one jar, and are asking for another one!
Sounds like a lot of work, but strawberry jam is so awesome. Nice pics too.
ReplyDeleteLooks yummy! I haven't made jam but I did once go out and pick strawberries at a farm then go home and make it into wine...it was good too (if a little strong) :)
ReplyDeleteOn another note, I have lost my original blog! I know, bummer, I tried everything I could, but decided to start a new one:
www.annatstudiohyde.blogspot.com
so as you see it does have a similar name to the original. I reckoned it would be recognisable that way and I have explained what happened to the old one....ann.
Sounds like such a fun festival! Lip smackin' deliciousness.
ReplyDeleteLove strawberry jam. Love to be walking around in tee shirt and shorts too.
ReplyDeleteWhat a wonderful tradition! It must be such a lot of fun to partake of all that this Strawberry Festival has to offer. And look at you, my dear....Your very own Strawberry Jam! I bet it is DeeeeLicious!
ReplyDeleteI hope we manage to get one more basket of local strawberries before another season is over.
ReplyDeleteBut of course. Just exactly what I'd expect from you. HA!
ReplyDeleteLovely tradition and making such a lot of strawberry jam must be a great home event. Your families are so lucky to have you around. I remember my late aunt who gave me several bottles of orange marmalade made from natsu-mikan (bitter summer orange) harvested abundantly in her garden.
ReplyDeleteYoko