Jam...finally.

I put up some jam today. Not a huge deal. But I've been feeling kind of overwhelmed with all the day-to-day tasks of taking care of a house and four kids and keeping up with the homeschooling. I've been feeling like I don't have enough time to do any of the extras. I'm slowly trying to get back on top of things and making jam is a small step in the right direction.

One batch mashed up.

One batch done!

I got two batches done today. Two more tomorrow (hopefully). Then, if we are lucky, we will get another trip to the strawberry fields. And several more batches to come.

Strawberry picking

Last year, after reading Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, I became much more aware of how my family eats and the seasonality of our food. It was the first time that I made an attempt at getting our food locally and in season, and then processing it somehow so we could enjoy it the rest of the year. I started small, with strawberries. My family loves strawberry jam and it is something I know how to make. I thought that I could at least make all our own jam for the year with strawberries that we picked ourselves when they were in season here (not Florida or California or somewhere in the southern hemisphere). But I quickly realized that I had absolutely no idea how much jam we actually ate in a year. So I took a wild guess and made up our jam. Well, it only lasted until about October! Then we were stuck buying jam again. Oh well, I thought. I'll do better next year now that I know.

Well it's next year now. We have been picking three times and I have yet to make a single jar of jam. Because I haven't wanted to buy strawberries out of season, we haven't had them for a long time. Now that we have them again, the kids are devouring them before I can do anything with them! And I'm starting to get a little panicked! This is Memorial Day weekend. There is a possibility that our local fields could get "picked out" before I get to them again. Hopefully we will get at least one more visit to the fields before all the strawberries are gone for the year.

Here are two of my workers busily picking (and eating) their way through the strawberry field on our first visit there this year.
My girls and some of our friends that went with us.

M with his prize strawberry.

J just starting to pick.

C with a carton that never seemed to get any fuller even though she was picking just as steadily as the others.

T before she discovered that there were strawberries on those plants.
Apparently I forgot to take any pictures of all the berries we picked. Oh well. Next time.

Have a great weekend!

Baby Trees!

Our baby trees from the Arbor Foundation arrived last week. The kids were really excited to pick out two trees each as their very own. We will grow them in pots for a couple of years to keep them protected. By then we will (hopefully) have found a good location for their permanent home.

Pentecost Cake

This past Sunday was Pentecost (or Whitsunday). So the kids and I made a cake. Because you really can't have too many reasons to celebrate. I got the idea from here. I made a white cake that was pretty tasty. It turned out a little too yellow because the recipe called for the whole egg. Next time I will try a recipe that only calls for the whites. I ran out of vanilla extract so I used almond extract instead. We all agreed that it was delicious that way. The kids said it reminded them of our Christmas Almond Pastry. The strawberries were from our most recent trip to the strawberry fields. The 12 whole strawberries represent the 12 fruits of the Holy Spirit. The 7 heart-shaped sliced strawberries represent the 7 gifts of the Holy Spirit. The small candles stand for the apostles and Mary that were present when the Holy Spirit came. And the large candle in the middle is for Jesus. The kids thought it was great! Next year I will have to make sure the kids can name all the fruits and the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Hopefully their answers will not be STRAWBERRIES! :)

A sad goodbye...

Today we said goodbye to a beloved pet. She was only with us for four months, but she was already such a part of our family. We will miss her dearly. Goodbye Hazel.