I’ve been making this pie almost every 4th of July now for several years. I think I missed last year so it better be extra good this year to make up for it. Start with enough dough for a two crust pie. Roll out half of the dough and place it in a 9 inch pie pan. Roll the other half out in to a circle around 10 inches across. Cut 6 strips from that, about 3/4″ wide each. You’ll also need to cut out 6 stars from the dough that is left. I used a paring knife to cut my stars but you could use a small cookie cutter if you want them to be perfect. Next, go ahead and get the filling ready. I normally use cherry and blueberry but this year I used strawberries instead of cherries. The strawberries are some that I froze last weekend, the blueberries I picked and Foodsavered a long time ago. If you’re using frozen berries be sure to drain them well. Large berries should be sliced or cut in chunks. Here’s what you’ll need. Red Portion:2 – 3 cups red berries (cherries or strawberries)2 tablespoons lemon juice3/4 cup sugar1/4 cup cornstarch
Continue readingCategory: strawberries
A Year’s Worth of Strawberries
Old bath towels are great for covering the countertops when canning. No worries about making a mess! This is where we were crushing the berries and that is all of the foam we scraped off after boiling. Our filling station and some of the finished product. This is called working double time. I’m spending the day with my Mom and sister today. We met at our favorite berry farm just after 8 AM and started picking. 30 pounds of strawberries later we headed for home. My Mom hulled all those berries while my sister and I went to Meijer for more pectin. Of course we also stopped by the bathing suit section, etc., etc. but we finally made it back home. That’s when the fun began. We had a pretty good assembly line going. One would crush, one would stir 2 batches at a time, and the third would manage the canner and jars. We pumped out 2 batches before breaking to attend my cousin’s graduation party. It was nice to see some family that I don’t get to visit with very often. Back at home the jam making continued. We also sliced some berries to freeze and left the
Continue readingSpring has sprung – here!!!
I’ve been watching jealously as one by one my fellow bloggers have posted pictures of their first spring shoots. Now I can finally join in the fun!! Farm mom inspired me to plant garlic for the first time last fall. I have not yet removed the thick layer of straw that covered the planted cloves all winter. Today I went out to inspect the patch and guess what – the garlic is already growing even through all that mulch! I still didn’t remove it but I pulled back a good section and found several sturdy looking sprouts. How exciting! Then I wandered over to my strawberries. I planted them last spring in a big metal pot that we found when we tore out the bushes around our house. I neglectfully forgot to mulch them over the winter so was prepared to find them dead this spring. They are more durable than I expected. I found several fresh green plants making their start already. Mmmm, I can’t wait for that first batch of jam. I planted two pear trees last spring as well. One tree didn’t even live through the summer but the other is doing well. Check out the little
Continue readingGooseberries and Currants
I’ll just make a quick update here before I have to leave. On Mother’s Day I went with my Mom to a nursery and purchased about $120 worth of plants. Here is a breakdown of what I got: 2 Gooseberry bushes ($8 each) 2 Black Currant bushes ($8 each) 3 Red Heritage Raspberry bushes ($4.50 each) 2 Himrod Green Seedless Grapevines ($6.75 each) 1 Bartlett Pear tree ($22) 1 Harold Pear tree ($22) 1 Dozen Red Seed Potatoes ($1.83) 25 Earliglow Strawberries ($11) 25 Jewell Strawberries ($11) So far I have only planted the Gooseberries and Black Currants. Both thrive in a colder, shader area and can stand up to a North wind so I planted them on the North end of our shop. I mulched them heavily and they seem to be doing well so far. I’m waiting to plant the pear trees until we pull a few stumps around the yard to make more room. Hopefully I can get everything else in this weekend! The plan is to use edible plants as much as possible thoroughout our landscaping. I just am not motivated to work on plants that I can’t eat! I’ll have more on this later…
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