Strawberry Fool

I thought I'd better pop in and update while I'm home on a break from our cottage vacation. Believe it or not, I came home just so I could pick strawberries. The berries are late this year, well compared to last year anyways, and when I realized that I'd be missing the season while I was gone, I hatched a plan to get myself home. This way I could pick and then process in the comfort of my own kitchen and with all my tools. I could not imagine canning in our tiny cottage kitchen nor did I want to lug all that stuff up there. 


So two days and 24 litres of berries later, I have 2 batches of freezer jam (strawberry/vanilla, strawberry/lime), a semi-failed strawberry/rhubarb/rosemary jam (a glass thermometer burst in the pot and I could not locate one tiny piece, so I strained it through a jelly bag and made jelly that set too thick, grrrrr!), a small batch of strawberry/balsamic/black pepper jam that is going to knock-our-socks-off served on some chèvre or feta cheese and crackers come winter time, a jar full of dehydrated strawberry pieces for muffins, and a very beautiful bottle filled with strawberries and vodka that is hanging out doing it's thing....that's going to be for chocolate strawberry martinis I think! 

Drunken Strawberries!

I had a very yummy spinach, green onion, chèvre and strawberry salad last night for supper and we've been snacking on them here and there. I also have three bags of frozen berries in the freezer and I'll be taking the better part of a basket back to the cottage with me to share. Phew! 


Done until blueberry and raspberry season in a few weeks.


Eating local goes on the back burner for most of our cottage time (see last year's post on the subject) since my Mom tends to look after most of the meals. We are however bringing a ham, bacon, eggs, pickles, cheese and our farm veggies for the meals that we are responsible for, and we plan to do a fair amount of fishing, so hopefully that will provide us with a meal or two! Last year we continued eating local dinners long past our goal of the first day of Autumn, which we will do again this year to make up for the missed days this month. Sounds fair I think!


Happy Eating! Back to posting in a week or so.

Shannon A.