This weekend kicked off stockpiling summer at the Eiting homestead. It started with our first round of peaches on Saturday. We get them from Tree-Ripe Citrus. In a few weeks it will be blueberry season too!
Following our peaches pick-up we made a trip with Auntie Erica to Barthel Fruit Farm. We started in the strawberry fields. Coletyn and Cecelia picked one of every four for the box. They ate the other three. I think we went a bit too early and next year I am going to wait until the end of June. The berries were small still and we had to go far on a row to fill three flats.
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| All boy! |
Up next were the snap pea fields. Everyone had a bag. Everyone had a plant. Jason stuck Cecelia in between four full plants. She sat on her butt and never had to move to fill her bag in between eating of course. Coletyn also filled his bag for G-Ma. He actually did much better than with the strawberries and picked about a pound and a half on his own!
Grand totals came to 30 pounds of strawberries and 15 pounds of snap peas.
Charlotte was with G-Ma (my mom) while we picked. When we went to pick her up, the kids copped a squat in her driveway and ate "lunch!"
So, what to do with all those goodies!! Right away all the strawberries got hulled. I use this appetizer spoon my girlfriend Melissa gave me years ago. It pops the hulls quickly with minimal waste.
One whole flat got hulled and frozen on cookie sheets with parchment. Once frozen, I'll transfer to vacuum seal bags so that I can pull out the quantity I want, when I want from the freezer.
Another whole flat and a quarter got hulled and smashed. It equated to a full to the top gallon ice cream tub. This will get turned into jam. My plans are for mango-strawberry and strawberry-rhubarb jams. With the gallon of berries combined 1:1 with mango and 2:1 with rhubarb, I should get about 30-40 half pints of jam. I've started freezer jamming in the last few years. Blasphemy, I know. This quantity of jam should last us close to two years (unless the kids step up their game).
The remaining 3/4 of a flat I hulled and we've had strawberry shortcakes (Betty Crocker's recipe of course), Father's Day crepes and just eaten.
Man they are delicious!!!
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| How long does it take to end 15 pound of snap peas. |
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| 75 minutes or two episodes of Hosewives |
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| Charlotte helping momma in a recalled bumbo on the counter. #thirdkidproblems |
Sauteed in garlic and butter in winter, yes please!
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