Currently viewing the tag: "strawberry"
This week we will be fully launching into the final preparations for next year’s strawberry crop. The two acre field that we will be planting into at the end of November has been fallow for the last month after we harvested one spring crop of broccoli and other mixed vegetables from it.
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Sweet, tart and lemony, this jam is summer in a jar.
INGREDIENTS:
2 1/4 cups crushed strawberries 1 3/4 cups finely chopped rhubarb zest and juice of one Meyer lemon 2/3 cup unsweetened apple juice 3 TBS Ball Low-sugar pectin
METHOD:
PREPARE boiling water canner. Heat jars and lids in simmering water until ready for use. Do not boil. Set bands aside.
COMBINE strawberries, rhubarb, zest and juice of lemon and unsweetened apple juice in a 6- to 8-quart saucepan. Gradually stir in pectin. Bring mixture to a full rolling boil that cannot be stirred down, over high heat, stirring constantly. Remove from heat. Skim foam if necessary.
LADLE hot jam into hot jars leaving 1/4 inch headspace. Wipe rim. Center hot lid on jar. Apply band and adjust until fit is fingertip tight.
PROCESS filled jars in a boiling water canner for 10 minutes, adjusting for altitude. Remove jars and cool. Check for seal after 24 hours. Lids should not flex up and down when center is pressed.
This year we will be participating in another strawberry experiment with my friend Joji Muramoto who is a researcher at The Center for Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems. I enjoy working with Joji because not only are his experiments well designed and thorough, but he seeks to answer questions that are of great interest to growers. In the past we’ve helped him with his fertility trials–comparing rates and timing of compost and fertilizer application in organic strawberries.
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Like all California strawberry growers, we grow out our berry plants each year from strawberry crowns that we plant in the fall. These crowns are runners trimmed from mother plants grown at high-elevation nurseries. We place our orders for the varieties we want early in the year and the plants typically arrive the first week in November—dry root and neatly packed, 1000 per box. Until recently, the most frustrating part of being an organic strawberry grower was that, no matter how sustainable my fertility and pest control practices were, I still had no other option than to use crowns from conventionally produced plants, along with everyone else.
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