The strawberries are done

[Tink]

Paige (my granddd) and I put up 41 containers of strawberries today. 8 of frozen, and 31 of jam.
I'm officially done making jam until the raspberries are ripe.
With the high cost of berries and other ingredients this year, I'm not sure how much I actually saved by doing it ourselves, but we're so used to home made that store bought just doesn't cut it.

So who else is canning or freezing this year?

[Janet]

I use to can and freeze every year and truly enjoyed it. It sure tastes so much better than store bought doesn't it? We haven't planted a garden for a few years now, just too busy. I really hope to plant one next year. I just need to simplify my life some.

[DianaB]

I used to have a really big garden and canned a lot, but since we've moved the garden spot isn't very convient to use and my cooking has changed since I don't have as large a family to cook for. I used to make strawberry jam, and nothing tastes as good as homemade, but my husband is diabetic so needless to say I don't make it any more.

[Marilyn]

We used to can all the time. I grew up canning and did so until 1995 when my father passed away. He was the gardner. He had a 2 to 3 acre garden and planted rows of peas, pumpkins and such in the corn field. We gave a lot away, too. Mother used to complain that we were supplying the whole DuPont plant with food. My dad was a maintenance mechanic at a DuPont petrochemical plant in our area. We had people out most evenings when the garden was producing picking vegetables.

I used to pick cucumbers in mud past my ankles just to get them off the vines so they would keep producing.

He raised a variety of strawberry that was red all the way through, no white core. They were sooooo good!!!

Miss him and the garden, and the fresh produce.

[judy]

I've never canned, but as a kid, we used to spend our summers in the country. My grandmother would give us cousins big containers and we would go pick blueberries.
She would then sit us down with some sugar and sour cream mixed in and that was lunch. From beginning to end, it was so much fun.

[Janet]

I really should have planted some strawberries. I'm not real fond of them, but my son loves them. Either with shortcake, powdered sugar or just alone.