Saturday morning, we woke up bright and early to drive up the road a good bit to go get strawberries.
We have to travel about 50 miles one way to go pick and usually we go to town and get 30+ quarts.
This year, Izzy couldn’t quite handle the excitement and we only got ten.
At first we were doing quite well- the berries were thick and juicy and ready to be plucked from the little hiding spots, nestled safe among leaves. Izzy was being very helpful and holding MrGillis’ box, asking why she couldn’t pick the white berries.
Then the tide turned and we had to make our exit rather quickly.
No harm, no foul, we just understand Izzy’s limits and work with them. She’s only two, life is all big and new and there was an older dog. While the owners were being very gracious, our girl was not listening at all. We have a pretty firm rule that if she isn’t listening to us, we leave the situation and explain why to her.
So after several minutes of explaining to her that she needed to leave the doggy alone and pick strawberries with mom and dad, and her still going after the dog (albeit very gently and lovingly), we paid for our ten quarts and left. With a lot of protesting from Izzy, but never the less, we did.
Maybe we’re strict, but I’ve lived with older dogs before, and no matter how loving or gentle you or they are, bites can happen.
So, we spent the rest of the day working on our own garden and weeding our own strawberry patch. But that’s another blog.
Today we’re talking about freezing strawberries!
It’s a pretty simple process-
Wash your berries and cut the tops off so they can lay flat. I line my trays with freezer paper, which is surprisingly hard to find in our area.
Once your trays are full, slap those suckers into your freezer for 6 hours or so until they are solid. After they get nice and frosty, we grab our food saver system and bag them up.
We’ve been able to keep strawberries for a year like this with no freezer damage. We do small bags for smoothies or just eating, and large bags for things like pie.
We’re really hoping that this is the last year we have to leave our yard for strawberries, as our field is coming right along, with plans on expansion already in the mind’s eye.
So, until next time, have a wicked good day.
Gillis Gardens, LLC 