those look like a lovely bunch of small strawberries but what you can't see is all the bruises.
what you can't smell is the smell of strawberry wine.
that's right. fermented strawberry bruises sold to be by... the amish.
what?!
i had to throw about 25% of 25 pints away.
again, because my fridge smelled like a wine barrel.
again, because my fridge smelled like a wine barrel.
for a strawberry to have fermented bruises the same day it was bought it was over ripe and/or bruised when it was picked and it came to me unusable.
again, not happy.
but you can't call the amish and complain.
and i do know that this farmer heaps his pints to make up for any unusable (but no amount of heaping was making up for what i lost)
determined not to be wasteful i sorted and processed what i could.
i might of had a red nose form smelling every strawberry in the process (you could smell the ferment).
hizazzle and i then made 23 jars of jam.
calculating the cost was the same as my favorite jam (not counting time) made me feel better.
then the next day the jam was not set.
i was freaking out. five jars of strawberry syrup can be used over pancakes, german pancakes, and ice cream but not 23.
g**gle informed me that overripe strawberries tend not to set when jammed.
crap.
absolutely determined we opened 23 jars of jam and added much much pectin, reboiled, re-canned 23 jars of jam.
good thing i have two water bath canners and a helpful husband.
this time they set.
but it would be an act of enduring and unconditional love to give any of these babies away.
which means we'll be eat almost all of them.
lessons learned. never pre-order fruit from the amish. much more worth it to take the risk that they are out. (drive up early in the morning and early to mid season to make sure).
always go yourself so you can say 'i'm not buying that.' it's not the job of the the kind person picking them up for you to inspect your strawberries.
again, not happy.
but you can't call the amish and complain.
and i do know that this farmer heaps his pints to make up for any unusable (but no amount of heaping was making up for what i lost)
determined not to be wasteful i sorted and processed what i could.
i might of had a red nose form smelling every strawberry in the process (you could smell the ferment).
hizazzle and i then made 23 jars of jam.
calculating the cost was the same as my favorite jam (not counting time) made me feel better.
then the next day the jam was not set.
i was freaking out. five jars of strawberry syrup can be used over pancakes, german pancakes, and ice cream but not 23.
g**gle informed me that overripe strawberries tend not to set when jammed.
crap.
absolutely determined we opened 23 jars of jam and added much much pectin, reboiled, re-canned 23 jars of jam.
good thing i have two water bath canners and a helpful husband.
this time they set.
but it would be an act of enduring and unconditional love to give any of these babies away.
which means we'll be eat almost all of them.
lessons learned. never pre-order fruit from the amish. much more worth it to take the risk that they are out. (drive up early in the morning and early to mid season to make sure).
always go yourself so you can say 'i'm not buying that.' it's not the job of the the kind person picking them up for you to inspect your strawberries.
No comments:
Post a Comment