A Day in the Life

I was thinking a lot about ancestors yesterday, or even just the past, as my kids and I partook of a New England summer ritual: berry picking. For about an hour we happily but haphazardly picked berries, eating a lot as we went, gathering about 13 lbs of ripe and almost ripe fruit from about 2 rows of bushes. Then we took the berries home (fast forwarding a lot through the now-famous fall at the park and subsequent trip to the ER) and spent the remainder of the afternoon processing them. First, placing them all in the fridge in shallow trays and then pulling out batches for jam and pie. It takes awhile to wash and hull 4 quarts of berries. And then do it again with 1 1/2 quarts. All the while boiling sugar or baking pie crusts or washing jars and lids.

And then I had a moment of clarity about how busy and exhausting harvest time must have been long ago. (I probably shouldn't limit it to long-ago ancestors. I have cousins--hi Cousin S--who are farmers and whose lives very much revolve around the weather and the harvest, whose work is round-the-clock exhausting or worrying when crops come in or weather threatens. Sure, they have equipment that farmers didn't have 100 years ago, but that doesn't mean it's easy. Even so, I'm not sure it's the same--I hope it's not--as people living at the beginning of the century before last; starvation doesn't quite threaten in the same immediate way.) Because my ancestors, all of our ancestors (more on that eventually because I just read a fascinating article about how if you go back so many generations, all of our ancestors are exactly the same ones!) didn't go berry picking for fun or just for an hour one day during the season. And it couldn't be haphazard with them eating so much along the way--this would be the majority of their food for the off season. Then, they didn't have just 13 lbs to deal with, nor a refrigerator, stovetop, oven, and the like to help them with the work. Or the security and comfort of knowing that if it didn't work, there was the store or other food. It wasn't entertainment, a teachable moment. Even after a few hours, we were losing enthusiasm for prepping berries and making jam and pie. And they didn't do it just once but for several days. Or else. Plus all the other things too. Because, no doubt, they weren't just busy with berries but with squashes and lettuce and cucumbers and then the crops of the next season and later the prepping and the planting and . . . and . . . and . . .

All said and done, our pie and 4 pints of jam are delicious and will be a wonderful reminder of a great day (as soon as we can forget the fall part. Oh, and if you want more information on the contemporary canning movement, see here.). But I'm glad it's just that--a fun summer afternoon experience and not the difference between survival and starvation.

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Fresh Strawberry Pie

1-1/2 quarts fresh strawberries
1 cup sugar
3 tablespoons cornstarch
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 nine-inch baked pastry shell

- Cap strawberries; reserve half of the best ones. Mash the other half and add sugar and cornstarch which have been mixed together. Cook 5 or 6 minutes until clear and thick. Stir in lemon juice. Cool.
- Add whole strawberries to the cooled mixture, save some for garnish. Pour into baked pie shell. Top with whipped cream and garnish with fresh whole strawberries (though, we like it even better with a dollop of sour cream!)

strawberry pamphlet

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Strawberry Freezer Jam

4 lbs strawberries, rinsed and hulled and crushed (or 3-12 oz bags unsweetened frozen, thawed in fridge until soft enough to crush)

1 1/2 cups sugar

plastic or glass freezer jars

1 packet of Ball No Cook Freezer Jam Pectin

Stir sugar and pectin together in a bowl until well mixed.

Add 4 cups crushed fruit. Stir 3 minutes.

Ladle jam into clean jars to fill line. Twist on lids. Let stand until thickened, about 30 minutes.

Freeze for up to 1 year. Thaw in fridge and enjoy up to 3 weeks.

Makes 5 half-pint jars.

Ball Freezer Jam pectin