The kiddos and I had a pretty good time this week picking berries at a local U-pick place: Apple Hills Farm. In about an hour and a half I picked over 20 lbs of berries. That was enough to fill up 3 large plastic icecream buckets.
I also gorged myself on fresh raspberries straight off the canes! I know, gluttony is not an attractive characteristic-but it is one time a year when I can actually eat as many of the succulent little berries as I want.
The berries were $1.79 a pound, so I spent $40. While I could never have bough so many fresh beautiful raspberries at the store for so little, they were not exactly a necessity. Yankee Bill and I feel that they are a reasonable luxury for our family and finances-so I’m trying not to feel too guilty about it.
So far the berries have made it into pudding, smoothies, and pancakes. A few frozen ones wound up floating in my wine last night. Since raspberries do not keep long, even in the fridge, so processing them became imperative, even with all the birthday BBQ planning and implementation going on.
I always like to have some frozen berries on hand to throw into muffins, cobblers, pancakes and such. For those purposes berries have to be flash frozen* in order to stay separate. I lined 2 large lipped baking sheets with wax paper and covered them each with a single layer of berries. Then I froze for about 4 hours, scooped them off with a spatula, threw them in a freezer bag and back into the freezer. Whenever I need some berries I can just scoop out what I need.
My next goal was to make jam. There is nothing tastier than raspberry jam on toast. And a single teaspoon of raspberry jam thrown over an apple chopped and “baked” in the microwave can make the entire thing taste like raspberries. Yummmmm.
Last year I made freezer jam-which is supremely simple.** However my freezers are pretty full right now, so shelf stable canned jam is preferable. The problem here is time. To make the jam I’d not only have to cook the berries, but then drag out the canner, boil the jars, and do the actual process of canning. I can do it in an evening between watching my shows, but there was just too much going on to contemplate it.
So I used a lazy canner’s trick an just chunked all the berries that were left into 2 huge freezer bags. When they defrost they will be total mush, but they are just going to turn into mush when I cook them so it doesn’t matter. I’ll take an evening in a week or so and make the jam.
Next on the agenda is the wild blackberry picking (totally free, and totally organic-you can’t get better than that). I checked our spots last week and the bushes were loaded, but still green. When they come in I’ll be doing some of the same things. I’ll make jam and flash freeze some. I’ll probably also make some blackberry infused brandy and try the blackberry shrub that Stephanie makes.
What kinds of berries and wild berries are near you, and what do you make with them?
Note:*Flash freezing is simply freezing things laid out individualy-usually on a cookie sheet-for a short time until they harden up (so they don’t clump) then packaging and refreezing. I do the same with meatballs, homemade chicken fingers, and freezing cut up veggies like peppers and onions.
Note:** You mash the berries, add sugar, add freezer pectin and throw into the containers-no stove at all!
Evelyn says
We missed Raspberries this year (pacific NW), but went ballistic strawberry picking (about 100 lbs in 3 trips)at$1.10 a pound, cherry picking (15 quarts)all free, and are planning on marrion berry, blueberry, peach and apple picking. We are in the same boat for freezer space, and I did about the same thing: chuck what I could in the freezer for sauces and jam later when it is chilly (like today! It is 60 out and we are expecting a high of 75). OH! and I totally scored. When I was cherry picking at a friend’s farm, her brother mentioned a meat market in town had lobster for $10 each!!!! That may be way more expensive than we would ever pay in Maine (they were 1-1.5 pounders), but out here that is dirt cheap. I got one for each of us, since I haven’t had lobster since a year after I moved from Maine (thought you might appreciate that, Jenn :). I”m still bummed it was so expensive in general, but happy it was relative inexpensive for the area.
Evelyn
Evelyn says
ps: I like your new header.
Evelyn
Barb says
I’ve been checking your site weekly, but haven’t commented yet. We have the thorny small raspberries and the large thornless raspberries growing in our yard. I love making raspberry jelly but it is time consuming. Last year, I used a steam juicer for the first time to get the raspberry juice and canned that. This year I’ve been slowly making jelly with the juice. With 3 little ones under foot, a 12 year old, and a 2.5 month old baby, this makes life easier! I do the same with our concord grapes. We did skip strawberry picking this year because of the new baby, but next year I’ll be back in business.
Piseco says
I knew you were “Upstate” but not local to me… we just got home from our own trip to Green Bros! 🙂
Rita says
Great price on the raspberries! Our prices are higher in the Finger Lakes. I actually paid $2.00 for one tomato today from an Amish stand (2.50/lb). I have been wanting a real BLT so bad – (no hothouse tomatoes). My tomatoes are nowhere near ready yet, but I have lots of delicious leaf lettuce. Bacon from the freezer was 10 for $10 during the winter. That BLT sure was good!!
Jill says
I did raspberries and marionberries last night – 15 pounds of each. Made a bunch of freezer jam and bags of frozen mush (we like it with crepes, just defrost and sugar to taste), I also did some flash frozen berries and also some berry-cubes. I take berries and kind of mash them into ice cube trays. When they are frozen I pop them out and put them in freezer bags. My kids use these for smoothies, leaving the flash frozen ones for me to use in muffins, pancakes or whatever (like you do!) I’m just waiting for blackberries to ripen, about a month or so. Then I’ll do blackberry syrup, blackberry juice concentrate, jam, and lots and lots of flash frozen berries. I live in Oregon and we have wild blackberries everywhere so I can get them for free and I try to make good use of them!
Jill
Stephanie says
tsp of jam over apples – never tried that one. Thanks for the suggestion
I was browsing through my canning cookbook yesterday and found a blackberry syrup recipe that uses Chambord (sp?) I’m planning to try that one.
We have a few raspberries (red and black) but TONS of wild blackberries. The other day I also found a couple of nice blueberry bushes. I was thrilled. It won’t be enough to do anything with but fill my belly and that is assuming that I get to them before the deer! 🙂
Carolyn says
That’s alot of raspberries!!!
Sharon says
Jenn,
That’s where we go blueberry picking in August! We went early one time and ate at the restaurant. The pancakes were to die for!
Sharon
Kristin says
I bet the Ball Blue Book would be mad at me for saying this, but . . . we never actually “can” our jam. All we do is ladle the hot jam into hot jars, put on the hot lids, tighten the rings as tight as we can, then flip them upside down. They always seal, and the sugar content in jam is so high, we very rarely have any spoilage problems. And even if there is a little mold on the top, you can scrape it off and use the rest.
Jenn @ Frugal Upstate says
Evelyn-I totally missed blackberries here last year. One week we went up to the land and they were green, the next time we went up they were totally gone! It was such a bummer. I'll be checking more regularly this year to make sure it doesn't happen again.
Barb-I consider myself a lazy canner, and frequently break the process up into steps myself. I finally canned the peeled, pitted, and diced peaches that had been in the freezer for almost a year! I've heard about a steam juicer recently, but not sure if I'd use it enough to justify the cost. We'll see-if the grape vine in my yard actually produces anything it may become worthwhile.
Piseco & Sharon-local folks! How cool is that?
Rita-that summer tourist trade you get in the summer up in the finger lakes must drive the prices up. And I understand about the tomatoe-I can't wait till I have some that are red. . .
Jill-those berry cubes sound interesting. If I get enough blackberries I might try that. I'm too selfish about the raspberries to share that way 🙂
Stephanie-oooh, chambord. That is probably delicious! I still want to try the blackberry shrub too. . .
Carolyn-I do go a bit nuts with the picking. . .
Kristin-I was thinking about trying the parafin next year. My MIL used to do that, just using various glass jars she had saved. I'll be keeping jars this year and then using them for the jelly, saving the ball brand ones for other foods that have to be canned.