Strawberry picking, that quintessential British Summer activity, is one of my favourites. Last weekend in Suffolk we stopped off at a Pick Your Own Farmshop near Snape, row upon row of luscious, juicy scarlet strawberries were ripe for the picking.
We had attempted to go last year to a PYO in Surrey but the heavens opened and Matilda screamed so we had to leg it to the car having failed in picking a single strawberry. This year we ignored the rain drops and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. We sneaked a few strawberries into our mouths, just to double check their quality, though Matilda then took it one step further eating two strawberries to every one she put into the box. Don't blame her as they were particularly sweet, having only had shop bought strawberries these freshly picked ones were so much more delicious. She was in seventh heaven delighting in her hard work choosing the biggest reddest berries. Sadly our strawberries have not given any fruit this year so she's not had the pleasure at home of running into the garden to pick the red jewels. So I couldn't begrudge her helping herself to a few.
We picked a kilo of strawberries bought them home and they've now been made into Jam for which I used this recipe http://gu.com/p/3xven And it worked, the jam has set beautifully which can be a challenge with strawberry jam, with it often ending up as a 'sauce'. Not entirely sure how economical it is to make your own, as a kilo only made three small jars though it certainly tastes much more delicious than shop bought jam and so easy to make.
We had attempted to go last year to a PYO in Surrey but the heavens opened and Matilda screamed so we had to leg it to the car having failed in picking a single strawberry. This year we ignored the rain drops and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. We sneaked a few strawberries into our mouths, just to double check their quality, though Matilda then took it one step further eating two strawberries to every one she put into the box. Don't blame her as they were particularly sweet, having only had shop bought strawberries these freshly picked ones were so much more delicious. She was in seventh heaven delighting in her hard work choosing the biggest reddest berries. Sadly our strawberries have not given any fruit this year so she's not had the pleasure at home of running into the garden to pick the red jewels. So I couldn't begrudge her helping herself to a few.
We picked a kilo of strawberries bought them home and they've now been made into Jam for which I used this recipe http://gu.com/p/3xven And it worked, the jam has set beautifully which can be a challenge with strawberry jam, with it often ending up as a 'sauce'. Not entirely sure how economical it is to make your own, as a kilo only made three small jars though it certainly tastes much more delicious than shop bought jam and so easy to make.
There she goes with strawberry in hand! It is a wonderful weekend activity and the children get stuck into it leaving you to enjoy watching them getting excited!
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