Here They Go A-Berrying

The kids and Mama are off strawberry picking this morning, taking advantage of Mama's work starting later today and also the cool morning. It's the end of the season, but I'm sure they'll find some berries. Now, whether they actually come home with any is another story!

I don't think we'll do anything sophisticated with the berries. No pie, no jam (since we still have jam from last year, that we'll have to toss soon). Just berries, maybe some cream for me . . . it is Wimbledon time, after all.

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

A Tree Falls in Connecticut

We arrived home today to police tape and emergency vehicles on our street. And inches away from the car we almost never leave on the street (except today because we had company) was half a 40' tree. It was a beautiful day in the Nutmeg State but the tree was rotten and fell into the power lines, cutting off power to the block for hours and almost demolishing our car.

All while we enjoyed a local farm's fall array of pumpkins and squash. We didn't do any PYO this time, as we still have bushels of apples from our last farm foray. But the kids enjoyed wandering the pumpkins and drinking cider from little plastic apples. I picked up a great wicker pie plate holder that I can't wait to try out. I love my apple pie recipe, which comes from a dear college friend. I'm going to need to adapt it for the babes but think I found the right vegetable shortening for the pie crust mix from Gluten Free Pantry. I'll let you know how it turns out (I would've made it with the babes this afternoon but power didn't come back on until long after bedtime).

Until then, there's firewood in the front yard and apples ready for baking.

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Patricia’s Apple Pie
Now this is my signature apple pie, made for all holidays. And as Grandma always used to say, “Apple pie without cheese is like a hug without a squeeze!” DP didn’t believe until she tried it (now there's always a hunk of cheddar in the house during apple season).

¾ cup brown sugar
½ teaspoon nutmeg
6 sliced, peeled apples
¼ cup flour
½ teaspoon cinnamon
pie crust (I use store bought) and crumb topping

Peel and slice apples, soaking in water and lemon juice to prevent browning. Heat oven to 425°F. Mix sugar, flour, nutmeg, and cinnamon. Stir in apples. Cover with crumb topping. Cover edge of pie with aluminum foil, shiny side out. Bake 40-50 minutes, removing foil for last 10 minutes.

Crumb Topping

1 cup flour
½ cup firm margarine
½ cup packed, crumbly brown sugar

Mix with fork and sprinkle on top of pie.

Apples, Apples Everywhere

So, we went to a PYO orchard last week before my mom arrived and romped around the orchards picking more apples than we'd ever need. And those were just the ones that actually made it into the bags! Our goal was to make our own applesauce or apple butter with my mom. You know, family fun. An experience. We came home with pounds and pounds of Ginger Golds and Paula Reds.

Oh, and Asian pears. An aside about these pears: DP is Chinese and gets a little--um, what's the word?--obnoxious about how the Chinese are superior to mere Anglos like me (last count, depending on whom you ask, I'm English, French, German, Welsh, and Scottish. See why it's just easier to say I'm a Texan?). Anyway, this orchard had Asian pears. These are round, juicy, crisps, actually very superior pears. And the kids loved them more than the apples. Which made her very happy. And obnoxious. It's cute, actually. But I don't know how to make anything with Asian pears except eating them cold out of the fridge, so back to the apples . . .

While my mom was here, we started our applesauce project. The lady at the checkout counter had told us that Ginger Golds made great applesauce. We filled a great big pot with water so the kids could "wash" the apples. They ended up more wet than the apples, as did the cat who was curious about the whole procedure. Grammie and DP peeled and cut the apples while I measured the other ingredients. DS repeatedly swiped whole apples and took several bites, while DD preferred the already cut pieces. Turned out we had about 3 times the number of apples we needed but, since we have a large slow cooker, we just made them all. The kids love applesauce.

We left for church and came home to a house redolent with the smell of fall. Oh, it was amazing. And delicious too. I think the adults ate more than the kids, who were surprised that it didn't look like store-bought jar applesauce. Too dark, too chunky. Even if it was better. They didn't eat much, while we planned pouring cream on bowls of it, or filling pie crusts with it.

Try it yourself, from Jyl Steinback's The Busy Mom's Slow Cooker Cookbook:

3 lbs Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored, and sliced (we used Ginger Golds)
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 1/2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

Spray inside of slow cooker with cooking spray. Combine apples, sugar, and lemon in slow cooker and toss to mix. Cover and cook on high heat for 3-4 hours. Mash apple mixture until smooth (we skipped this part). Sprinkled with cinnamon and mix well. Serve warm or refrigerate and serve cold.

Note: we cooked the cinnamon in with the apples, having misread the recipe, but I don't think it hurt it any. And it smelled so good.