And the grand total is 24 pints of strawberry jam, 10 half-pints of blueberry-strawberry jam, 10 half-pints of strawberry-peach jam, 13 quarts of frozen whole berries, 7 quarts of sugared berries, and a big ole bowl of cleaned and ready-to-eat berries in the fridge. I’ll tell you, the best part about strawberry picking is my children. At the berry patch I continuously hear “can I eat just one more” and then the ride home is entirely filled with the sounds of juicy strawberry eating. After we get home the flats of berries are laid out on the table, and all day long, when the kids walk by, they reach out for just one more berry. I cleaned a bowl for them to take outside and share with the neighbor kids and I heard one of the boys say “your mom is the best cook, ever” followed by Abigail’s remark “she didn’t cook these silly, they’re freshly picked”. It was fun.
I’ve ignored my garden for a few days, so it was a complete surprise to me to walk out to the peas and see that the sugar snaps are full of pea pods and just beckoning to be eaten. Once given the green light, the kids made quick work of the bush, and I managed to snag a few myself. These peas were planted simply for the joy of eating them straight off the plant. There’s nothing like it. My shelling peas are also ready I think, and I’m a little concerned, because I don’t know that I’ll have the time to actually shell them and process them over the next few days, so I have hopes that they’ll make it at least to Sunday afternoon. We’ll see if I get a few extra moments later on today.
Other than that, dinner last night was an absolutely delicious french toast topped with berries, and who knows what’s on tap for tonight. Later this week I have hopes of squeezing in a few salad ideas for you, and maybe a new bar or two. We’ll see, it’s a busy holiday week here! Even Abigail was getting into the action by making a snack mix to share over the holidays. You can check out here story in today’s Kids Cuisine article.
Happy Wednesday!