Strawberry Picking

My annual Strawbery Picking Extravaganza was last Saturday, Day One of strawberry picking at Terhune Orchards in Princeton, NJ. I arrived at the farm around 1:30 after a lazy morning at home in anticipation of a long day of picking, cleaning and jamming. It had been so crowded at Terhune that the strawberry field was closed after we left: it was all picked out! But strawberries have a way of regenerating or ripening overnight, so Sunday and Monday's pickers had plenty to keep them busy.



Strawberry jam is the easiest to make, I think, because strawberries have lots of natural pectin in them that helps the jam set. Some of my recipes that combine strawberries with other fruits require a box of store-bought pectin, but my plain strawberry jam recipe from the original Ball Blue Book does not. Ball is one of the leading jar and lid manufacturers, by the way. I make lots of strawberry and blueberry jam every year mostly to give away as gifts at Christmas, and sometimes for a unique hostess or housewarming gift. I guard my latest stock fiercely, but if you hit me up for a jar of last year's product, I can usually set you up. My most popular flavor, at least with the family, is blueberry-lime, so you probably won't see leftovers of that flavor.

This year I made extra strawberry because I'll be traveling in July when blueberries are ripe. After starting the picking at 1:30, I worked straight through until 8:30 making strawberry, strawberry-banana and strawberry-rhubarb. When I was all finished there were 29 jars, mostly half-pints. They cooled on the counter for two days just as the Ball Blue Book directs, and now they are ready to be stored in a cool, dark place.
<

Jammin'

This weekend was all about the berries. Yesterday, Fred picked about 8 pounds of blueberries at Terhune Orchards, and I joined him later for an attempt at raspberries and blackberries. Bad news about the raspberries: they are almost gone. Ripe blackberries weren't much easier to find, but there were still plenty of red unripe berries waiting for later this week.

Today I made the blueberry and blueberry-lime jam. This isn't hard work, but the rinsing and stemming of all those little berries can get tedious. My blueberry-lime recipe (from the Ball Blue Book) requires 4 1/2 cups of berries, and the plain blueberry jam needs 8 cups. That's a lot of berries. Once they are prepared, the work goes quickly and steamily. The jam takes about 10-15 minutes to cook, and then is ladled into sterilized (via the dishwasher) jars. Lids and bands (the screw-on part) are also sterilized and waiting for me to the left. To the right, on the other front burner, is a pot of boiling water waiting to vacuum-seal the jars in the special rack under water. After 15 minutes the jars come out and cool on towels for at least a day. I made about thirteen 8-ounce jars today, and together with the strawberry and strawberry-banana jam from June I should have enough for Christmas gifts. Usually by peach season I'm all jammed-out. I rarely make peach jam. Or tomatoes. Maybe this year.