Since I planted our strawberry patch in the spring of 2017, many people have asked me what type of strawberries I have and why I chose them. I have two types of ever-bearing plants: Seascape and Mara Des Bois. The nice thing about these plants and many other types of ever-bearing is they will bear fruit until the first big frost. Like most strawberries they will bear fruit really well up to 3 years and then there may be a sharp decline of fruit. Some people say that you never have to replant new strawberry plants and they aren't wrong either but the amount of fruit will be a lot less then if they were young plants.
The "why" these plants was because thats the ones that were recommended to me at the Nourse Farms Inc. where I purchased the plants. Locally Abbot's Farms sources their strawberries plants from this nursery in Massachusetts.
We are on year two and we have seen a very abundant first harvest, in fact it was so plentiful that we have 6 pounds of berries in 4 days and I so decided to make jam out of our very own. I have to admit that I never enjoyed picking strawberries at the farmers for a few reasons: it was usually a hot summer day when we went picking and the fields don't have any shade, you really have to search for the big ones and they are never together unless you are one of the first people into the field, and the joy of going to the farmers wasn't there either.
Last year I started to install my drip irrigation system for fast and easy watering of the garden. After fine tuning it this year, I have been happy with how well water is delivered to each of the plants. Although we had a dry spell already this year when I had to supplement from the house.
As the first fruit starting coming in, we found many berries were eating by strawberry thieves. At first my thought was rabbits, but with a fence around the entire garden, that wasn't possible. Last year we had a family of field mice set up camp in the sorrel. After some observation I realized that it was the birds. And so up went the bird net, purchased on Amazon. We have seen minimal loss of berries since then.
The rotting and already partially eaten berries I just threw outside the garden for Peter Rabbit and his bird friends to enjoy.
A perfect berry
This year I decided to make a simple strawberry jam and you will see why its really easy to make jam by the ingredients.
INGREDIENTS:
6 lbs washed and greens removed strawberries
1 cup lemon juice (lime is ok as well for a substitute)
7 cups granulated white sugar (I used 8 and it was too much) (substitute with 3.5 cups of honey)
Yields 7 pint jars of jam.
1. Bring berries to a boil via medium/high heat.
2. Turn heat down to medium and gently add sugar, stirring frequently.
3. Boil at a low simmer for 30 minutes to 2 hours depending on your preference of jam viscosity.
4. Immediately transfer to jars and then boil for at least 10 minutes, depending on your elevation above sea level.
Last year I added Grand Marnier, an orange-flavored liqueur and it created a very unique taste that not everyone liked in my family.
I don't ever use pectin for two reason, less is better and natural is always better. The lemon juice has some properties that act similar to pectin and it's a great natural preservative for longevity.
I have been asked several times, how long I allow my jam to boil? Most recipes that you will find online require the boiling time to be 5 minutes at the most. As most of us know that most berries have a lot of water content. Even before sugar is added, once the berries start to boil, its very obvious at the amount of water content in the pot. So the duration really depends on the preference of jam thickness/viscosity. I prefer mine to be a medium thickness so it spreads really well on waffles or bread and butter. To get a medium jam it requires about an hour of boiling. Really thick, marmalade style, usually 2 hours. The longer you boil, the more you need to stir and make sure its not burning at the bottom. I keep at steady simmer and not a hard boil which allows for more water to evaporate.
Before transferring that jam to prepped jars, make sure to remove the scum that floats on top. It tastes really good, so transfer the scum to a glass container and its a nice spread for breakfast.
After my first experience of canning, I realized that the contents of jar are preserved so much better if the seals mold to the glass jars in a hot water bath. And it doesn't require storing them in the refrigerator. So I have been doing it ever since.
No comments:
Post a Comment