Finishing Up the Strawberry Harvest

Strawberry season has pretty much come to an end around Iron Oak Farm. I've also finished putting up the berries so we can enjoy them throughout the year.

I made freezer jam for the first time this year. It was so easy! I may never go back to canning strawberry jam again! Plus I really like the fresh flavor of the freezer jam. My recipe doesn't require any cooking, so you get that "just picked" taste.

I also dehydrated a few racks of berries. I've never had much luck dehydrating strawberries before...they always turn too crispy and stick to the trays. I realized that I was slicing the berries too thin. This year I cut each berry into thirds and it worked much better.

I also made a Strawberry Pie

Strawberry Lemonade Concentrate

 
and froze what little berries we had left.

Before freezing, I let the berries dry out quite a bit in the fridge in a Ziploc bag with paper towels to absorb extra moisture.

Then I froze the berries laid out on a cookie sheet. When the berries were frozen, I put them into a Ziploc bag in the freezer. This method of freezing allows me to grab a few berries to add to smoothies without having to thaw out the whole bag.