My friend Sarah and I had been trying to get out berry picking here in Ithaca for the last month. Between work and the seemingly constant rain, I was beginning to think it would never happen, but finally, Monday, we managed to get out to a couple places in nearby Trumansburg to pick blueberries and raspberries. It was an absolutely gorgeous evening and we picked heaps and heaps of berries (but not quite as many as the people at the blueberry place that had $150 worth of berries, I'm not sure they actually were able to fit all of them in their car). I picked black raspberries at Sliver Queen farm- they were so pretty I couldn't resist them! Turns out this was a pretty good plan on my part, as the season for these black raspberries is significantly shorter than the normal red varieties, so I can always go back and pick more (if I can figure out where I can store the various byproducts). When I got home I threw them all in my refrigerator, but spent tuesday determining what to do with the bounty.
The problem was that my refrigerator is a bit small and with all the CSA produce and other foodstuff there wasn't much room for all sorts of berries. Plus, last week I might have gone a little crazy and bought 2 quarts of currants at Westhaven Farm, and as a result I was feeling pressured to make use of them before they went bad. So the equivalent of an entire shelf of my refrigerator was filled with currants, black raspberries and blueberries. So I did the only thing one can do in this kind of situation: Jellies, Jams, and freezing.
First up: Currant Jelly. I've never made jelly before, so this was pretty exciting.
Second: Freeze black raspberries (freezing them in a single layer on a pan first works really well!)
Black raspberry Jam. Yum.
Worthwhile sticky mess:
Third: Freeze blueberries. Sleep. Work. Blueberry jam.
Awesome. I love summer.
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