The strawberries are coming in much better this year! I've already harvested more in the first picking than I did all of last season...and of greater quality and size. I think the winter mulching and consistent watering have helped immensely. Here's my first little harvest:
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| So juicy and flavorful! |
Our 20 or so plants provide us with enough for fresh snacking, but not enough to can jam. So it was off to the Farmer's Market to hunt down some additional harvest. The girls and I went a couple weekends ago, but didn't arrive until 11am for the market that opened at 8am. Sold Out! The berries were all gone within the first hour or so I was told. I was intent on landing some fruit because last year I was not quite as determined, never came across any, and regretted it the whole season. So last weekend I took a solo trip back to the same market, arriving no later than 8:30am. Score!
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| 12 pints from a great, beyond organic/biodynamic local farm |
I promptly turned them into sweet ruby gold...
Had planned on using the old fashioned no-added-pectin method of just boiling them down for half a day. I usually lean toward food in it's purest form and adding anything "extra" rubs me wrong. But as I looked into it more, the downsides to not using additional pectin were further loss of nutrients and less end product, all due to the long cooking time. And of course, the possibility that the jam would not set. So I went ahead and used powdered pectin. Turned out great!
Which method do you prefer - added pectin or not?
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Pectin all the way, although I've gone through the same internal debate you did. Time won out in the end- who's got 1/2 a day to babysit bubbling jam?? Our strawberries are just coming in as well. Picked my first container full this morning. The hens are loving them (yes, I share).
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