Strawberry Season
Jun 20th, 2010 by Matt
Although we’ve had lousy weather for a good month here - a true damper on the area’s strawberries crops - there are still some good ones to be found.
Out of all the food preserving Amy has accomplished the past couple of years, my personal favorite - and there’ve been many great ones - is a strawberry/rhubarb concoction that is billed as a jam, but it is a bit more like syrup. It’s the perfect companion for pancakes and waffles. At our house, maple syrup is not even in the equation anymore.
I recently polished off the final jar of last year’s strawberry/rhubarb batch. That was a sad morning, but fortunately we’re back into berry season to replenish the supply. A week ago, Amy ordered 2 pounds of rhubarb from Living Earth Farm via Eugene Local Foods, which I picked up on Tuesday. Today, we were after the main ingredient and ventured out to The Small Farmers Project in north Eugene just off River Road. This berry farm is an effort of the Huerto de la Familia organization. They have both u-pick and they-pick options. It’s a beautiful place with terrific product, we highly recommend a visit.
So far, we’ve been able to get all the rhubarb and berries cleaned and cut. Tomorrow the canning action will take place.
Tonight we had a terrific grilled steak dinner (my pick on Father’s Day). The beef was very special, a Xmas gift from my mom that we’ve been hiding in our deep freeze for half a year. It was from her personal stash of beef that was raised on a farm near my hometown of LaMoure, ND = Prairie Road Organic Farm, (featured recently as FarmerHeroes by FarmAid).
Our feast was capped with a classic strawberry shortcake. Amy used the Joy of Cooking shortcake recipe and we topped it with Noris Dairy cream (also from Eugene Local Foods). Yum!
Just a note if anyone follows your blog from back here at home–there’s a tour of the above mentioned “Prairie Road Organic Farm” this Wednesday, June23, billed as, “Podoll Garden Tour.” It’s being sponsored by FARRMS: http://www.farrms.org. You might want to google David Podoll just to see what this fellow has contributed to sustainable agriculture.
Is the recipe for your strawberry/rhubarb jam/syrup available? Loved my jar and also claimed the one left behind at Christmas.
Sounds like a cool event at Podoll’s.
I’ll do another post about the recipe for the jam.
I love your blog. We’re trying to do something similar here in Gainesville, Florida. Thanks for the inspiration!
OLL… Thank you for the kind words. Best wishes on your efforts - it’s been and continues to be a rewarding endeavor for us.