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So. You’ve gone out with the kids are picked some berries. Now what do you do with them?

For starters, there’s always the “wash and eat” option. My boys love fresh berries. I do sprinkle a little sugar over anything tart.

The next thing I usually do with berries is make jam. It can be a daunting thought, but honestly, jam is very easy to make. Mash the berries, cook with pectin and sugar, then jar and process.

Freezer jam is even easier and just as tasty. Detailed directions can be found in the boxes of fruit pectin available in your local grocery store. Two brand names to look for are Ball and Sure-Jell. I try to go the canning route simply to maximize space in the freezer.

If you’ve never made jam before and are nervous about it, find a friend who has some experience and have them walk you through the process the first time. Trust me, it’s easy to handle and the results are wonderful: less expensive fresh jam made with simple ingredients.

After jam, fruit smoothies are quite popular around my house. For fragile fruit like strawberries or raspberries, I go ahead and mash the fruit and freeze in ice cube trays. Once solid I bag up the fruit cubes and seal with my vacuum sealer. (This is not required but does aid in preventing freezer burn. A high quality freezer bag will also work very nicely.) Whenever I want a fruit smoothie, I throw the following into the blender (note - this makes a single serving):

• one medium banana
• 1/2 cup or more of ice cubes
• 1 or 2 fruit cubes
• 2 -3 Tablespoons vanilla yogurt

A quick blend on the ice chop setting and I have an all natural delicious smoothie that’s packed with goodness. By the way, it is possible to freeze the fragile berries whole. Simply put them in a single layer on a sheet pan and freeze. Bag up when they’re solid. You’ll need to be gentle with them if you want them to look whole when thawed, and they’ll be mushy anyway which is why I just mash them up.

If I’m freezing blueberries, I wash them and set on a towel to dry. Many people will tell you to freeze the berries unwashed, but really if you are careful to get them completely dry they’ll freeze just fine and save you some hassle later on. Lay the now-dry berries in a single layer on a sheet pan and put into the freezer. Once the berries are solid, bag them up. Frozen blueberries also are very handy in muffins.

Instead of making jam, it’s possible to simply can fruits. I love sweet cherries and they’re just fantastic out of the jar. I wash and pit them - yes, it’s a lot of work but when I want to eat them they’re completely ready. Make a light syrup. Fill the jar as tightly as you can with the cherries, pour in the syrup to within half an inch of the top, then seal with the lid and rim. Place in a boiling water bath for the appropriate amount of time for your altitude, remove and let cool.

One very important point to make about canning: do not… I repeat do NOT can by putting jars inside an oven. It’s highly unsafe, both because of the danger of the jars breaking and the possibility of bacteria not getting killed. Dying from botulism is not fun.

Alrighty, that’s a lot of information. Next week we’ll talk about fresh berry recipes (bring some to share please!) and I’m planning to cover larger fruits as well as vegetables before we wrap this up this series. I’ll be picking strawberries this week, how about you? What kinds of produce are fresh in your neck of the woods?

by AmyL

Photo graciously provided by Smaku, through a Creative Commons license, some rights reserved