First (and last?) strawberry jam!

It was probably a week ago when I set out to write about our first strawberry jam making fun.  And I was in a state of shock that I had hardly picked a berry yet but we had been enjoyed bowls of berries almost daily thanks to the girls!  Kali has been our main strawberry picker this year and it has been great!  It's not that I don't like picking strawberries, but I've felt more or less completely occupied keeping up with other things so her help has been invaluable.

Early in the season, I was uncertain as to why Jason was less than confident in us having an abundance of berries.  We've said we want to have enough strawberries to get tired of them.  Not there yet!  I should know better than to doubt his intuition on things garden related...  And I should never underestimate the wonderfulness (and necessity) of compost!  We did not get around to applying compost to the plants this year and it seems they are missing it.

I'm by no means complaining about the delicious little red fruits that are all around us and that we can pluck off and savor pretty much anytime we want.  It just looks like the season has probably already peaked and is going to be winding down.  I haven't frozen nearly as many as last year, nor made as much jam and haven't experimented more with drying as I was hoping I might be able to do this year.  It looks like that will have to be another year.  Now one difference this year is that both of our girls have grown and along with it their appetites.  Often the bowl of strawberries is empty by the time lunch is through.  So we are enjoying more fresh, as it should be.  And we have made strawberry shortcake and pudding (twice) and had them over ice cream.  So no one is suffering for lack of strawberries right now, but we won't be eating our strawberry jam by the spoonful as we were inclined to do leading up to this season... But Kali and Alida announced that the mulberries are getting ripe, and the gooseberries are so cute and plump on their stems and raspberries are starting to form and there are clusters of red currants on the bush!  And we just had our first snow peas tonight sauteed with as many garlic scapes as I thought I could get away with.  Yum!!