Schacht Farms

Chris and I have had a great weekend with beautiful weather. We started it off yesterday morning with a trip to Schacht Farm Market to pick our own strawberries. We got a couple of buckets and headed out to the strawberry patch to start picking. When we first got out there, I thought the patch wasn't all that big and I didn't know how many berries we'd end up getting. Well, after you've been squatting in seventy-something degrees in the sun, moving along the rows of plants, you realize that it's actually pret-ty big! We each went about halfway down a row when we decided to call it quits and we ended up with about six POUNDS of strawberries!

Look at that haul! And let me tell you, they're delicious. I have realized that part of the flavor of strawberries comes from eating them at room temperature instead of right out of the fridge, but that doesn't diminish how tasty they are.

Since we have so many of them, we decided to freeze some and make jelly which was a new experience for both of us. Chris' mom is a veteran jelly-maker though and she recommended the freezer jelly method. It's not ready yet so I can't attest to the final outcome, but it was really easy. We cut the tops off the berries, mashed them up in the food processor, added some pectin, lemon juice and sugar (I'm not exactly sure how that part went because Chris did it due to my horrible track record at properly following instructions), stirred it all together and put it in jars. They sit at room temperature for 24 hours and then they're ready to eat. You can freeze it for up to a year or put it in the fridge for up to 3 weeks. I can't wait to try it and I really hope it's good!