beautiful berries

Strawberry season has arrived and this year it found me an eager and waiting soul.

Last year, i wanted so badly to preserve a lot of jam and enjoy the strawberry season to the fullest, but i didn't get my canning equipment until the strawberries were nothing more than small little bushes surrounded by composting piles of unpicked strawberries.  This year however, i was prepared and at the ready. I hit the fields the first day they opened with my dear friend Jessica and our pups.




We picked berries in the early morning ours on an overcast, warm, perfect saturday and headed back to her place to begin the transformation of these beautiful berries into tasty jams.

After a long, but very fulfilling afternoon we had a few batches of freezer jam, strawberry rhubarb jam, strawberry balsamic vinegar jam and enough left over for some snacking on and pie filling.  

I am rereading Barbara Kingsolver's book "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle" this summer because the lovely way in which she writes about food and how is gets to our plates inspires me to go the extra mile and care about what happens to the food that ends up in my body.  She has awoken the passion in me for good tasting food and knowing how to pronounce all the ingredients in my meal.