Sunday, July 20, 2008

Putting Food By

I came home with a lot of berries from the market yesterday, which means it's time to start putting some away for the winter. We already made raspberry jam, now it is on to strawberries.

Basically all the preserving I do involves the freezer. I don't have the time for canning, some day I'd like to though.


First wash them. I've found that the easiest way to do this is in a big bowl of water. This does the least amount of damage to the berries and is pretty fast, which is essential when working with a lot of fruit.


I have a little system. The berries are in a bowl in the sink, the knife in my right hand with the discarded tops on the right. The berries are held in my left hand and then put in a bowl on the left. Denny calls me the efficiency police, can you see why? But seriously, this makes the job go fast and smooth.


This is for the chickens. The girls are eating good today!


We just throw them into plastic baggies portioned out to around 2 cups because that is what most of my recipes call for. If you want individually frozen berries that will pour or scoop out of a larger container, wash them, lay them out on a tray and place it in the freezer. Once frozen, you can dump them into a large bag or container.

Now we can freeze the bags like this or make some jam.


Next up, these beauties.

5 comments:

Anjeanette said...

Yum. I love strawberries and cherries. I wish I had room in my freezer for such beauties.

Lovely shot of the cherries!

Amy said...

So smart! You will be enjoying all the fruits of your labor (total pun intended) while I am eating that junk at the grocery store. Great inspiration- thank you!

bunzi said...

yummy the fruit looks so good.

Jessy and her dog Winnie said...

I just went blueberrie picking! Time to make pie!

AlasMyDear said...

oh wow, do these ever look yummy!
i wish i had the luxury to make fruit into jam. where i live, all berries are so costly they're a special luxury...no one would set much aside for jam!