Strawberry Madness

I've always loved strawberries. When I was little my dad planted a strawberry patch in our garden just for me.  It is strawberry season around here, so a friend and I went a pickin this week. We headed out to Critzers Family Farm in Afton. It was a great day for picking because it was cool and misty, always better than hot and buggy. When you're picking with a friend the time can really fly because you're picking and talking and next thing you know you've filled two flats of strawberries!

I came right home to start canning. It's a really rewarding process once you've done it a couple of times. I was a bit ambitious and got through three batches. Those three batches only used up one flat of strawberries!

I made regular strawberry jam, strawberry balsamic jam and strawberry sauce. I ended up with 18 jars.

Now what to do with the rest.....
Well I gave some bowls away to neighbors, then I made strawberry ice cream and went looking for some more fresh rhubarb. I made a strawberry rhubard pie last week and the family loved it and wanted another one.

We were so indulgent we had strawberry rhubard pie with strawberry icecream topped with strawberry sauce. I highly reccomend buying up some local rhubarb and making a pie or a crumble. The tart and the sweet together is incredible.

I love the unusual ones. Get pickin!