Strawberry Fields Forever

When I was little, my grandmother used to take me strawberry picking at Turner’s Farm, and then she would make freezer jam. I remember kind of hating the strawberry picking part, because inevitably it would always be hot and humid and buggy and I was a little kid who wasn’t real outdoorsy and got bored easily. It’s been a long time since those days, a long time since I’ve stepped foot in a strawberry field, but I was getting the urge this year.

I think it might just be more fun as an adult. We went out to the farm, Carandale Farm in Oregon, and it was a mild summer day with quite a hefty breeze. Not the hot and humid of my past. And it was super fun, Nate and I crouched over a row of berries, exclaiming here and there about this berry or that. We were like little kids, only instead of getting bored, we kind of couldn’t stop.

So we got home with a ton of strawberries. And then I opened the package of fruit pectin and realized that freezer jam uses about half the strawberries that real jam does, which of course was what I was gauging my volume on at first. Oh well. So I made two batches that are sitting on my counter right now, getting ready to go in the freezer, and froze a tray of berries for smoothies later. I picked up more pectin at the store for more jam, and I’m kind of thinking Pink Lady cupcakes with cream cheese frosting, because hey! My birthday is coming up! And what’s better than supplying everyone you know with pink cupcakes (and freezer jam) on your Independence Day birthday? Festive!

Actually, these jars of jam are looking pretty darn festive to my eyes. I called my grandma up before we went picking to ask her if she had some special jam recipe, which it turns out she does not, just so that I could be as informed as possible, and she was so excited that I was doing this. She’s not doing jam this year, but she’ll be getting a couple of jars of mine.