Strawberry Season

We loaded up the family and headed out to a local farm for U-Pick Strawberries for our Family Home Evening activity yesterday. I had heard from a friend that the season started last week so I was surprised that they still had some left when I called to check. However, we were disappointed when we arrived and saw how small the berries were. I don't know if it is because all the good big ones were picked last week or if the crop was just small this year. But they were easily half the size of the ones from the store. Most of them were about the diameter of a nickel. But, we weren't too picky. We planned on turning them into some yummy jam. It took us a while but we were able to get 2 buckets full of berries. The kids had their fill of them and were covered in berry juice when we left.
After we got home, M and I got the kids cleaned up and put L down for the night. Then we started making jam with K's help. We cleaned and stemmed the berries. Then K got to mash them up. We cooked them on the stove while we sterilized our jars and lids. Then when everything was ready, we made our first batch of jam. We got thirteen 8oz jars which we then gave a water bath to. When they were done we set them aside to cool and started our second batch of jam. When we were all done we ended up with twenty-two 8 oz jars, two 4 oz jars, and three 12 oz jars. We still had quite a few berries left too. The sight of so much yummy jam makes my mouth water. I am so glad we are set for another year of jam.