You've got to love strawberry season. On Sunday, I gathered a posse of friends and we headed to a local u-pick organic strawberry farm. I personally picked about six pounds of beautiful, red, juicy berries. Which only took about 30 minutes. There was so much fruit! If only I had a bigger home or more people to feed.
Since then I've been trying to figure out what to do with all of them. I froze some, but my freezer is a bit small, so I don't know that I'll be able to freeze too many more. I ate some, of course. I'm thinking of making some jam, but I just don't eat that much jam and I still have quite a few jars of jam left over from last years jam making adventures. There may be a pie or some strawberry bread in my future, but I've still got a big heap of berries.
I took a look in my handy Preserved cookbook and decided to try my hand at making dried strawberries. It is simple enough: slice up your berries and put in a food dehydrator, low oven or drying box for 12 hours. Of the three, I've only the oven, so last night I gave it a shot. They are great! Chewy, sweet and delicious. I think they'll be incredibly tasty on cereal or in the granola I'm always planning on making. Plus, they take up a lot less space once all that water is gone!
Nora, Those strawberries look great, you made your own fruit candy to take anywhere.
ReplyDeleteI made jam during strawberry season and was surprised to find how many it took just to make a few jars!
ReplyDeleteMy family's favorite is strawberry shortcake with HOMEMADE whipped cream. It's the best!