19 Pounds of Strawberries

Mmmmmm, it's strawberry picking time!

It was the first time my husband and I went strawberry picking. I had no idea how many to pick. I thought four containers would be perfect....and 19 pounds of strawberries later, I wondered what I had gotten myself into!

You might be laughing to yourself thinking, "That's a lot of berries!" (and work!). But this is what I did:

1. Strawberry Jam

2. Strawberry Ice Cream Topping
3. Chocolate Covered Strawberries

4. Frozen Strawberries for Smoothies

5. Fresh

Keep reading to see how I was able to whittle those strawberries down to only 6 cups to eat fresh...

Strawberry Jam Yield: 4 Half Pint Jars

Step 1: Get those jars, lids, and rings sterilized! Boil in water for 10 minutes.

Step 2: Find a recipe to use for your strawberry jam. 

I used the recipe from the Ball RealFruit Classic Pectin container. 

Measure out your strawberries into a small layer.

Step 3: Smash the strawberries with a potato masher or pastry cutter (like me).

Then add more strawberries (for 4 half-pint jars I needed 2 2/3 c. of mashed berries).

Step 4: You want the berries to be quite mashed, but still chunky so you can tell what you're eating.

Step 5: I measured out 2 cups of white sugar, 3 Tbsp Ball RealFruit Classic Pectin,

 with my 2 2/3c. strawberries.

Step 6: Before I started cooking the jam, I set out the jars, lids and rings.

Step 7: Pour the strawberries and fruit pectin into a saucepan over med-high heat. Stir occasionally.

You are going to want the mixture to come to a full rolling boil that cannot be calmed down when you stir it.

Step 8: Once it starts to boil, add the sugar and stir constantly. You want the mixture to return to the rolling boil. Boil hard for 1 minute.

Step 9: Remove from the heat and begin ladling the jelly into the jars you have prepared.

Step 10: Wipe off the rim of the jars with a wet rag or paper towel so the lids will seal tightly. Place the lids and rings on the jars - only tighten with your fingertips, not your whole palm (that will make the lid too tight).

You will place the closed jars in a canner and process for 10-15 minutes, depending on your canner. 

Once the jars have processed, take them out and set them on the counter. You may hear them pop and seal right away, but some may take 24 hours to seal. Just let them sit, don't mess with them - it could take 2 weeks for the jam to set! Mine set almost right after they cooled.

The next day I made 5 more (half-pint) jars of strawberry jam.

Next I made some Chocolate Covered Strawberries:

I melted 1/2 bag of semi-sweet chocolate chips over low heat in a saucepan on the stove. I picked strawberries that were firm and used a toothpick to poke them and dip them in the melted chocolate. I then placed them on a wax paper covered plate. I placed them in the refrigerator to harden. Yum.

Third, I made Strawberry Topping - I found it on Brown Eyed Baker's blog. I decided to can this strawberry topping recipe into three pint jars - so I had to triple the recipe. It smelled amazing! I can't wait to put it over vanilla ice cream.

Lastly I Flash Froze strawberries for smoothies. A very common mistake that people make when freezing fruit is they put fresh fruit in a freezer bag and throw it in the freezer. Bad idea. All the fruit will stick together. Flash Freezing is the method that allows each individual piece of fruit to coat itself with frost, preventing them from sticking together when you put them in a freezer bag. 

Flash Freezing:

Lay berries out on a cookie sheet in a single layer - try to keep them from touching (this will make it easier in getting them off the cookie sheet). Place a piece of wax paper (same size as cookie sheet) over the berries on the pan. Place another layer of berries on top of the wax paper. This creates two-layers of fruit on one pan to freeze more berries quickly. Place the pan in the freezer for an hour or two, until you feel a coating of ice on the berries. Once they have an ice coating, pull the berries off the top layer of wax paper and pull them off the pan on the bottom layer. Pour them into a freezer bag and pop the bag into the freezer. Boom. You have strawberries for smoothies - and they won't be sticking together.

After all these strawberries were processed how I wanted them, I still had 6 cups left for fresh eating.

After all, I believe 19 Lbs of strawberries was perfect!