More Canning--Strawberries

Last week, I went strawberry picking with my sister-in-law and my nephew. I hadn't been to pick strawberries since I was a kid, but I still managed to pick almost 17 pounds of berries pretty darn quickly. (pretty darn quickly = slightly longer than the amount of time a 5-year-old will happily pick strawberries) So all week I made things with strawberries.

In the above picture:

Spreadable Fieldberries from the Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving: This did not quite set up properly, but is definitely thicker than syrup.

Strawberry Lemonade Concentrate (also from Ball): I used my juicer to juice the lemons and I think it made the concentrate a bit clumpy (for lack of a better word) but it's still good. (Delicious with sparkling water.)

Strawberry Vanilla Jam from Food in Jars: This is pretty much syrup. I haven't actually opened a jar, but I don't have high hopes for it being very jammy. I also found it to be a little too sweet for my tastes.

This was my first canning of strawberries in any form and my first jam. While I didn't get a good set on either kind of jam, I'm still happy with my first attempt and will definitely try again. Maybe raspberries.

Rhubarb!

We have a new rhubarb plant in our garden this year (a transplant from my parents), but, since we just planted it, my dad didn't think we should pick any this year. This advice was quite upsetting to me since I have about 10 different things I want to can with it. Luckily, our neighbors brought us a giant bundle of rhubarb last week.

While it wasn't enough for all of the things I was hoping to make, it was plenty for this Victorian Barbecue Sauce.

The recipe is in the Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving if anyone is interested in making it. I highly recommend it. Yum.