Strawberry Picking

We went strawberry picking on Jones Family Farms in Shelton, CT, their Valley Farm location.  Doesn't that look exactly like an edible jewel?  I magic of berries is never lost on me.

Because of COVID, we had to reserve a time slot.  We went at 8am, because it was supposed to rain later in the morning. The dew was still out and sun was just rising and warming everything.  I said to myself, "Heaven is a berry field in the morning."

Adele and I filled one basket.

 Norah and Avril filled another.

Adele moaned like a little, old lady and rubbed her lower back as she stood up from picking. I had to laugh.  That made me feel a bit better about the aches I was feeling.  Though it's challenging to be bent over or on your knees, this only took about thirty minutes.

I knew from previous experience that fresh berries don't last long, so we got right to work cleaning and cutting, prepping the berries for jam and pies, etc.

I made strawberry lemon poppy seed scones. Recipe here. My friend Robin had given me some lemon spread, so I put that on top.  These were amazing without the spread, but with the spread, they were just about the most delicious thing I've ever done.

We made four pies, two fresh strawberry pies and two ice box pies.  I had some left-over ice box pie filling, so I got creative and put it on top of crushed graham crackers.

We canned thirty six eight-ounce jars of freezer jam. I've given Robin three jars. And I will be giving away more.  I've got amazing friends who just give and give all sorts of relishes and cookies and goodies constantly, so it is nice to have something lovely to give them.

My family helped me push through and process everything before bed.

We froze a half a dozen or so bags of chopped berries at the end. Each bag is enough to make one batch of scones some time in the future. Not shown in any pictures are three pint jars of frozen strawberries in syrup to use as ice cream topping later this year, too.