Strawberries

Friday morning Emily and I were out the door at 8:45 to head to a strawberry patch. A friend of ours is helping with her friend’s garden while they are out of town, and this means picking strawberries every other day.  The two large rows produce an unbelievable amount of fruit and I was happy and extremely excited to help pick the ripe berries. Last week we picked up 4 lbs of berries on sale and Emily has been eating them every day with lunch, but adamant request. She signs and says “strawberries” very clearly now and she was completely on board with the strawberry picking adventure.

Emily was a great sport and stayed close by the entire picking process. She picked a few by herself, but she preferred putting the strawberries I picked into the basket. She also gave me big hugs from behind and side tackles, and I’m proud to say I never fell into the plants.  She was also quick to alert me if a plastic bag blew away and would hold my hand while she ran as fast as she could to chase it down. After an hour and half in the heavy humidity that left us all drenched, we walked away with a gallon ice cream bucket full of strawberries.

 

Today I decided to make freezer jam for the first time by myself. It turned into an all day process. We started out at Walmart around 7:30 to get pectin (because Emily was awake at 6am today which is not normal).  When we got home it wasn’t 90 degrees yet so Emily and I decided to go on a walk.  When we arrived home we looked up the directions and realized that we didn’t have the right size containers. The smallest I had was a pint and we needed a half pint. So we walked to Ace hardware and picked up a dozen half pint jars. They were washed, and then we enjoyed lunch and a much needed nap.

The real fun began after Emily woke up. We cut and crushed five cups of strawberries. Emily was a big help in swishing the strawberries around. She took advantage of her position and ate a ton of strawberries (sometimes with all the leaves on) while I cleaned, cut and crushed for roughly and hour with disney music blasting and both of us dancing away. The key to me remaining calm during the binge eating and extra help was the endless supply of strawberries and the mindset that however much we make will be just perfect.

Mouthful of strawberry.

 

Things got a little rough at the end. No girl really wants to stand on a chair for an hour and a half, even if it is part dance party. Adding in the sugar and pectin, mixing, and pouring into the jars was done one handed while holding Emily.  We made it through and have six jars of jam to show for it, with plenty of strawberries left to eat with lunches.

 

For an unexperienced mom and toddler, I would say this endeavor was a success and one I just might make a yearly tradition.