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How Many Ways Can You Use Strawberries?

I'm not sure, but I'm doing my best to try everything.  I've made...

• Strawberry Jam
• Strawberry Sauce
• Strawberry Smoothies
• Strawberry Slushies
• Strawberry Infused Vodka
• Strawberry Popsicles
• Strawberry Shortcakes

In addition to the super small batch strawberry jam I made last week, I spent the weekend putting up a whole bunch of Strawberry Vanilla Jam and some Strawberry Margarita Jam too.  

I'm still getting loads of berries from my strawberry plants, but I'm ready for raspberries now.  Too bad our little canes won't produce until the autumn.

Jam from My Own Strawberries!

I totally made strawberry jam -- from my own homegrown strawberries! This is a first, as I've never had enough ripe berries at the same time to make it a possibility.  The last few days though I've been getting about 3/4 lb. of berries every day, so I decided to make a small batch of jam.

Small batch jam takes very little time to bring up to temperature, plus there is less hassle since you aren't getting all that canning stuff out and sterilized and such.  I had just enough to fill my cute little LeCreuset jam pot a little over half full. 

 

Really Small Batch Strawberry Jam Recipe

3/4 lb. of berries (weight before removing tops)

1 cup sugar

Juice and zest of one small lemon

1 tsp pectin (I used the Ball low sugar pectin)

Trim and quarter your garden fresh berries and throw them in a heavy bottomed pan with the sugar, lemon juice and zest.  Cook over medium heat, stirring now and then until the mixture reaches 220º or appears to be gelling.  Add 1 tsp. of pectin -- sprinkling over top of jam -- and stir well while continuing to cook for about a minute.

Transfer strawberry jam to a suitable container and refrigerate once it cools a bit.  

Strawberry Infused Vodka

It's going to be very difficult to wait two weeks before cracking open the strawberry vodka I've got brewing in the pantry.  

We've been getting about a pint of strawberries from the garden every day, which is awesome, so when I skipped Monday (our super busy day here), I was in for a good harvest on Tuesday.  In fact, I had enough for the strawberry vodka with plenty left for snacking.

I've seen numerous posts around the blogs concerning strawberry infused vodka and it appears that all you have to do is cut up some berries and add the liquor.  I did just that, filling a clean pint jar 3/4 full of cut berries and then filling the jar with my favorite vodka.  (Yes, it's a giant bottle -- but it was on sale at Binny's for nearly the same price as the regular size.)

I'm seriously looking forward to a strawberry vodka tonic and perhaps a sparkling strawberry vodka lemonade.  Yum!

More Garden Stuff

Potatoes!  Onions!  (And peonies too!)  More and more of our yard is being taken over by edible plants.  This back bed was filled with random perennials, some scraggly yews and weeds when we bought the house back in 2004.  Today most of that was been ripped out to make way for our newest farming project -- potatoes.  They seem to be taking well to this old planting bed, although the ones growing in the shade of the fence are taking longer to get established.

The strawberries are producing well this spring and I think I found the secret to keeping the squirrels from eating/damaging them -- different birdseed in the feeders.  The safflower and thistle are safe because the squirrels don't like them and stay away from our yard.  

And in the other end of the main raised bed, peppers and tomatoes.  I bought them from several different sources this year (and didn't even attempt starting seeds), so things were planted pretty randomly.  I did discover that the best place to purchase veggie plants in our area is Keller's Farmstand.  We went to their location in Naperville, but they also sell plants at their Oswego location.  That beautiful, hearty looking pepper you see in the corner is from Keller's.  They grow them locally, so I don't think they suffer from shock like some of the other things I've purchased.

The raspberries are coming along nicely -- you can see the new bed in the photo above -- it's to the east of the main bed.  And the secondary strawberry patch, although a weedy mess, is also producing quite well this year.  

I'm really enjoying gardening this year and looking forward to harvesting lots of veggies, and hopefully some raspberries, this summer.

Weeding, Pruning, Planting, Harvesting

A serious amount of my time has been spent in the garden recently.  We don't use any weed killer (or any chemicals, for that matter) in the yard & garden, so there are *always* weeds to pull.  I'll never be able to keep up with them, but I make an attempt pretty much daily.

There is a pay off for all of this work.  Despite the fact that it is only May, we've already eaten several salads from the garden.  I just threw an old packet of seeds into an old flower box with some fresh potting soil and it went crazy!  The seeds were at least two years old, so I wasn't even sure they would germinate -- ha!

Today I picked the first few ripe strawberries -- the first of many.  There are too many green and pink berries to count, and I think I may even have enough to make jam next week.

So, that's were I've been.  

Just a Tribble

I've been looking for a knitting project that would get me excited about knitting again, but I haven't really seen anything new and different out there.  Any suggestions on a fun and interesting knitting project?

In the mean time, I knit a Tribble for fun.  It's such and easy project that it took me almost no time at all and I'm already using it in the kitchen.  Perhaps not very exciting, but that's the state of my recent crafting endeavors.

I've been baking too -- making Maddie's favorite which is banana bread based on this recipe.  Of course, I make it gluten free, subbing 210 gr of my GF flour blend for the flour.  I also like to use brown sugar for half the sugar, add a bit extra vanilla extract, and top it (in this case) or mix in some toasted pecan pieces and semi-sweet chocolate.  So delicious!!

I've also been working in the yard -- pulling weeds, planting potatoes, and other things.  Pete spent the better part of yesterday building a new raised bed for the raspberry plants that just arrived.  So that's strawberries, herbs, onions, potatoes, lettuces, blueberries and raspberries, so far.  The pepper & tomato plants should arrive soon and I really have to get the carrot seeds in the ground.  I'm pretty excited about the garden this year.

 

Making Mozzarella

Stretching the cheese

I've had cheese making on my food project list for quite a while now, and this weekend when I mentioned that I was bored, Pete told me to make some cheese.  I didn't think I could find the supplies in town, but it turns out that there is a Brew & Grow not far from us and they had the 30 Minute Mozzarella kits in stock.

The kit -- you can get one at cheesemaking.com

As it turns out, making mozzarella is super easy!  From what I can gather, the one problem that can mess up your final product is over-processed milk.  Milk producers are now overheating their milk, even milk that is not labeled as ultra-pasteurized, so they can keep it on the shelf longer.  (Well, there is a lot more to it, but suffice it to say, this is yet another byproduct of the dysfunctional food system in this country.)  This messes up the proteins in the milk somehow which can cause your cheese to refuse to firm up. 

Finished cheese in an ice bath

If you are from the Chicago area, Oberweis milk is safe for cheese making -- that's what we used and it worked beautifully.  As you can see, my cheese set up, although I need a lot of practice with shaping  :)

Slices of our finished cheese -- yum!

One gallon of milk makes quite a bit of cheese, although I forgot to weigh the final product.  We've been eating it straight up, tossed with pasta and tonight Maddie and I are making homemade pizza.  It was a fun project and I'll definitely be making more cheese in the future.