We planted both raspberries and strawberries over the last few years and are getting so many we can’t eat them all. We give them away, but is there something better we can do with them?
Edit: thanks for all the great responses. I think we’re going to freeze them.
Get a tortoise and feed the berries to it 👍
(That’s what we do at our house)
Like the others: jam.
Juice, pie, jam. Pie being my favorite 😋😋
Sell them at a Farmers Market? Donate them to a local homeless shelter or food bank?
or churches for donations
my mother in law has given a lot of produce from her garden to the different places that will take it. Hearing her recall the number of years and the amounts donated makes me happy. Just thinking of that is good medicine
Enlists them in the army.
Freezer Jam:
https://southernbite.com/easy-strawberry-freezer-jam/
It’s not shelf stable, but it will keep in the fridge for 3 weeks or in the freezer for a year.
We freeze them and give away some
On raspberry pi host VPN
On strawberry eat
Jam? Jelly?
I have a pretty good canning set up, and strawberry jam is the first recipe in the book.
Making jam is not trivial but it I think that makes it rewarding! My dad has made jam and marmalade for as long as I’ve known and it’s always an event. My parents have hundreds of jars (for some reason my dad calls them bottles? Only in a jam context though!) and every so often he cooks up a giant pot of jam with an old-fashioned sugar thermometer, testing the batch on a piece of baking paper, then bottling everything up. He often did it with my sister, who now also makes her own jam.
He labels all the jars, and we’ve opened jars that were… I dunno, a decade old I’m sure, and they were totally fine. So they will definitely keep for a long time!
Making jam is trivial.
You boil the fruit, and if it’s not gummy enough, you add pectin.
Done, jam.
How much sugar do you add?
How long do you boil it for? (You don’t know; you have to monitor the temperature)
How long does putting it all in jars take you? (ages)
It’s not difficult, but it is time consuming and not trivial.
Food fight!
If I had them, I’d process the strawberries by generously cutting the tops off (don’t throw them away!) then putting them on a parchment lined sheet pan to freeze, then once frozen, into freezer safe bags. With the tops, make kvass. Put them in a pitcher with a lot of sugar and some spices, fill the pitcher with boiled and cooled water. Cover loosely with a towel and stir twice a day until fizzy. I have some in my fridge right now and it’s delicious!
No such thing
Freeze them. During the off season thaw some in the microwave and put it warm on ice cream.
