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Sunday, June 21, 2009

Strawberry Dreams!

I have always loved Strawberries, or I thought I did. Then I moved to Oregon and came to know strawberries as they should be. DARK red, full of juice and sweetness. Yum. It makes my mouth water just to think of them. Oregon berries are NOT like California berries, to say the least. Not that Cali berries aren't good, they just aren't delicious when you put them side by side.

And when you throw in that there are You pick farms 10 minutes in every direction of my house, well who can complain? Not me that is for sure. My friend Heidi and I took our boys on Tuesday and went a pickin'.

this is the farm, Groveland acres and its right across the street from Roloff farms.


g head with our loot! 15 lbs- $15!! love it!

happy boy, full belly and a full basket.

g head and Collin.


Thursday, I had planned to host our sign language group at our house and have a pot luck brunch, but after throwing up all night and day before, my house was trashed and so was I. So I threw together this lovely galette (rustic pie if you want to google the recipe- I recommend the ones with corn starch in them. this was the easy {read: lazy} version and it ran everywhere!) and went over to our friend Kelli's house who was generous enough to host at the last minute!

Saturday Heidi and I got back together and I taught her how to make "real" jam, as opposed to freezer jam. I love how easy freezer jam is, but my freezer space is at a premium and jam just doesn't earn its keep. :)

We both made two batches. Mine ended up being 24 4oz jars and 5 6 oz jars. Yum! What a great way to start the season! And I have a gallon (stuffed full!) bag in the freezer.

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9 comments:

my3sons said...

Yum! Would love your recipe. I also usually make freezer jam. We live in Maine and have very good berries....

Shelly said...

What's your recipe for jam? I wanted to make some this weekend but heard it was a pretty tedious process. Is freezer jam just as good?

eireann said...

that galette looks so delicious! i love fresh strawberries. lucky you, and your kiddo is such a charmer.

i am with you on freezer jam. just isn't worth the space and "real" jam is so easy. yum!

Preity Angel... said...

Wow.. My mouth is watering.. I love your style to make it..

Heidi said...

Thanks again for teaching me! It was fun!!

Leslie said...

Do you make 'real' jam on the stove? I plan on attempting jam this summer (peaches are big here) but was planning on using my breadmaker. Opinions?

The strawberry jam at Sweet Oregon Grill is one of my best memories of living in Hillsboro. I miss that place. So Sad.

Jaimey said...

My3sons, Shelly- I use the recipe for cooked jam in the surejell pink low sugar box. :) Easy as well jam!

Eireann- it was yum! But it needed the cornstarch, I forgot how much thicker the juices are when you use it. It ran like crazy!

Angel- thanks!

Heidi- you're welcome! Any time, peaches later?

Leslie- I make it on the stove with the surejell recipe. I have never heard of using the bread maker. How exactly does that work? I loved Sweet Oregon Grill too, too bad they were stupid and didn't have insurance! Who does that?! :(

Leslie said...

I have no idea how it works in the break maker. I got it for Christmas and just now took it out of the box. :) It has a jam setting, which my Mom made sure it had before she bought it. Maybe I should try my hand at doing it on the stove? Better safe than sorry.

I'm stunned they were allowed to run a business w/out insurance. What if people had been there? Bonehead move. It's not like they were hurting for business either. You know they had the money.

Jaimey said...

Leslie- interesting. I have never heard of a bread maker with a jam setting. Try it once and let me know how it goes! I'm sure there is directions and probably recipes in the book for it.

Ya, the S.O.G owners actually owned Soloflex too, which is a local company, hubby used to be their banker. They did "ok" for themselves, I don't understand why they didn't have insurance either. They got very lucky it was the middle of the night when it burned down. I cried, I was on vaca in CA and Zack called to tell me. :(