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May 24, 2012

Strawberry Preserves


REST

That is one of the best little words my weary mind and body can eagerly comprehend, especially at this time of year.  It seems after months of planning, preparing and planting the garden, I look ahead into the hot and sticky summer months and realize I've only just begun.

This week has been full of not only an abundance of garden work, but lots of work in the kitchen too.  We are just about done washing, hulling and preserving over twenty quarts of beautiful, luscious, juicy red strawberries.  

Is your mouth watering yet?

We have gone a bit strawberry crazy!

Trying to figure out what to do with all the strawberries even after making strawberry preserves and flash freezing several gallons, we turned to the ever trusty Pinterest for ideas.

First we made the strawberry preserves.








Strawberry Preserves

2 pounds of fresh picked, hulled strawberries
1 Tablespoon plus 1/2 teaspoon of lemon juice
1 cup of sugar

With strawberries and lemon juice in the pan, cook over low heat about 40 minutes.  Stir in sugar.  Bring to boil over medium heat, about 15 minutes.  Pour into clean, hot jars and process for 15 minutes.

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After stocking the pantry with strawberry preserves, our daughter decided to make a strawberry pie.


With all this sweet baking, I longed for something a bit more substantial and since it is salad season, I couldn't go without finding a great strawberry salad recipe.  Actually, this one is a Spinach Strawberry Salad.  YUM !!


If you are anything like our family, you have turned to making your own dressings and forsaking the store bought syrups.  Thankfully, they are extremely easy and delicious to make.  Once I started making our own dressings, I couldn't believe what we had been missing.  Here is a great one that I guarantee you, no store bought version will beat it.

Strawberry Poppyseed Dressing


And here's a very refreshing drink after a hot morning in the garden, Strawberry Mint Lemonade.


And one final one to tempt all of our cast iron skillet lovers, Strawberry Skillet Pie!


I hope this has inspired you with ideas and new recipes for using this season's wonderfully fresh strawberries!

Next week, we start all over again.  Not with strawberries though, with fresh picked blueberries!  A friend of ours has a huge blueberry patch that we've been invited to go pick at.  I know I'll have to come up with all kinds of new blueberry recipes!

Until then, have a blessed day!















9 comments:

  1. Got some serious blueberry envy going on here : )

    CQ

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  2. Wow! Great Job! Your strawberries are beautiful. Instead of strawberries, we have cucumbers coming in! Lots!

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    Replies
    1. I'm just planting my cucumbers today! The season is about three weeks ahead of schedule and we are SO far behind it feels like....the cauliflower heads are developing and the peas are almost done. We're still working through all of the relish and pickles from last year and I can't even think about processing cucumbers right now, lol. I need to though because it will be here before I know it!

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  3. The strawberries are beautiful!

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  4. Yes, strawberries galore!!!! Everything looks amazing!

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  5. Yum, yum, yum! We have strawberries, blueberries and blackberries right now and are using them for jams, pies, and cooling summer beverages, too.

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  6. The strawberries are making my mouth water. Then you bring up the blueberries! Can't wait to see what you do with them.

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  7. Your post does truly make my mouth water, and reminds me of why I need to plant my own!!! Everything looks and sounds just delicious!!!

    Enjoy your Thursday!!

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  8. Yummmm! Yes, my mouth is watering. I would love to hear more about all the homemade dressing you make (and recipes). That's one area in our efforts to eat healthier that I want to improve on -- to make our own dressings. Blessings!

    ReplyDelete

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