Did someone say strawberries?

There was no mistaking strawberry season this year. We bought four bucketfuls, picked five buckets and were given three buckets! That's a lot of strawberries.

We gave away two buckets to neighbors and our Sunday school class. We consumed an unspeakable quantity of berries while they were fresh and juicy. The love of berries runs pretty high in our family...

I set a goal with the uneaten berries to store them for use throughout the year and never have to buy those barely pink, juiceless, strawberryish things sold in the store. A little too lofty of a goal for my first attempt at harvest preservation, but I gave it a valiant effort.

There's dehydrated strawberries (thank you, Sara, for letting me borrow the dehydrator!), strawberry butter, frozen strawberries (pureed with sugar, sliced, and whole), a strawberry pie, and strawberry jam. It was my first time to make real strawberry jam (as opposed to freezer jam). I was so proud!