Strawberries Galore!

We have had such a late season here in the valley that we have finally finished putting up the last of this years strawberries (I think).  We have about 12 quarts of whole frozen strawberries, 8 pints of freezer jam, 12 half pints of strawberry vanilla jam, and 2 pints of strawberry syrup.  Plus, we've eaten plenty of fresh strawberries with cream and I made some rustic strawberry rhubarb tarts (recipe coming).  Yum!

Most of our strawberries came from our CSA at Hentze Family Farm, just outstide Junction City, but we also did some u-pick at an organic co-op, and got one flat from a couple kids selling from their family farm.



We like to freeze berries whole so that we can use them in smoothies throughout the year.  We spread them out on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper and pop them into the freezer that way.  When they're frozen solid, we bag them up.  That way, they're frozen individually, not in a giant clump.

Fresh Strawberries with Cream

This is the best whipped cream frosting recipe.  It tastes like fresh whipped cream but is sturdy enough to pipe onto a cake and won't droop overnight.  In fact, I used it on Clint's birthday cake and it stayed stiff for a few days (in the fridge) until we finished the cake.  It does taste best after allowing to mellow for a while in the fridge, though. (Recipe Coming Soon).




For the strawberry vanilla jam, I just added 1 tablespoon of vanilla extract in as part of the required amount of strawberries in a normal cooked strawberry jam recipe.  It jelled up nicely and tastes amazing!  For the freezer jam, we just do the low sugar box of pectin (the pink box) and follow the freezer jam recipe that comes with it.  The syrup was supposed to be jam without pectin, but I couldn't get it up to the required 220 degrees, so I put it in jars and called it syrup when it didn't jell up.  Oh well!  I'm sure it will still taste good : )

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This post submitted to the Homestead Barn Hop.