In my last post on Friday I wrote about my family’s little trip to a U-pick strawberry farm. I mentioned I was going to be busy making lots of jam with the amount of berries we ended up coming home with. I had originally wanted to post these pictures over the weekend but time got away from me so here they are today instead. Better late than never!

We had so many berries and they were so ripe and ready to eat. The only down side to them being so late in the season was the fact that they were rather small. I did not feel like freezing such tiny berries so I ended up making preserves on top of strawberry jam. I have never made strawberry preserves before- just jam. The preserves did not set up as nicely as the jam since the recipe did not call for pectin to be added. The preserves consisted of three simple ingredients: strawberries, sugar, and lemon juice.

We ended up having our homemade pancakes the next morning for breakfast instead of for dinner that Friday night as I was too tired from putting up all those strawberries! We used the preserves on the pancakes which were so good seeing that the preserves did not jell up as much as the jam. Plus I like the large chunks of berries the preserves have.

I am bracing myself for the next few months as I have a lot of preserving and canning planned. I am making it my goal to can as much fresh produce as possible to have for the rainy and cold winter months (that seem to last forever here in Oregon!). The blackberries are just a few weeks away from being ready and the first few crops of cherries are starting to roll in. Also by mid-July there will be the blueberries and I know a great farm for those. At the same time the blueberries are ready, the lavender farms are having their festivals. Then come August I will try canning tomatoes from the garden for the first time ever (we usually gobble them up before they get a chance to see a single canning jar!). On top of the tomatoes there will be the U-pick peaches that we plan on devouring. September will bring pears galore from the Fruit Loop. Not long after that the apples will be ready for more U-pick family fun which will find me making applesauce, pies, and apple butter. Oh, and let’s not forget that all the herbs I grow still need to be gathered and dried. This is of course on top of keeping the garden healthy and happy! This time of year can bring a frenzy of activity when it comes to harvesting and preserving summer’s bounty but I would not have it any other way!

I have been taking an interest in drying food for preservation as well and might give that a try this year. How about you? Are you planning on preserving some of your harvest this year and, if so, how?

As you can see in the picture above, the peppermint I have growing on my deck is more than ready to be harvested. It is actually in two containers and I have them placed side by side.

Seeing that the peppermint and a few other herbs in my garden are in need of gathering right now, I thought I would post this little tip on what I do when I harvest my herbs. I have been doing it for many years now and it works out really well.

The evening before I plan on harvesting my herbs I go out and wash them with a gentle spray of water. This removes dirt and other little things (like insects) that might be clinging to the leaves. One important thing to remember about harvesting herbs is you want them free of water when you are going to dry them for later use. Washing them off in the garden the night before picking eliminates having to wash them after you gather them. By morning they are nice and dry as well as clean and ready to be picked!

Today I signed up for this great little challenge on the web called the Back 2 Basics challenge. It is to simply get people growing AND preserving their own produce. They are calling the challengers “Harvest Keepers”.

By being a HARVEST KEEPER you are

- Providing nutritious food for your family
- Ensuring food security
- Improving quality of life
- Saving money
- Reducing food miles, fuel & energy dependence
- Reducing excessive packaging and effects of climate change”

The challenge also encourages you to keep a record of your harvest and how you preserve it. I thought this was a great idea as keeping a record of your harvest can help you plan next year’s garden.

I liked the idea of recording the preserved harvest so much that I decided to make up some charts to help me keep track of what I actually preserve this year. I ended up making two charts and I am including them at the end of this post for anyone that is interested in them and would like to use them. They are in Adobe format so you will need that to read them.

The first chart is to simply help me keep track of what I harvest, when I harvested it, what I did to preserve it, and finally how much I ended up with. The second chart is to keep track of the preserved harvest.

To use the second chart I will write what item was preserved in the left hand column. The boxes to the right of the item signify one preserve. So for example if I made 8 pints of blackberry jam I would shade in 8 boxes. As we eat the jam I will put an X in the box to show that it was eaten. I think this chart will really help to show what we actually consume of our harvest throughout the year.

One of the reasons we put in another vegetable garden this year was because we want to try to consume only what we grow and lessen what we buy at the market. This challenge goes right in line with what we are striving to do in our home. Hopefully I will learn a lot this year about what we actually consume so next year I will be even more ready for the harvest.

Hope everyone has a productive harvest this year! Happy Gardening!

Preserve Charts