Delights of summer

One of my favorite things about summer is the berries. The strawberries are finally ripe and ready to be picked. Since we have had a few days without rain, I thought it would be the perfect time to buy berries. After our bike ride, we stopped at Spooners to pick up a flat of strawberries. They were beautiful. We stopped at the store for lemons so I could make lemon cloud with strawberry mint compote for dessert. Yummy... I thought that I had pectin at home for my freezer jam, so I didn't buy any. After lunch my dear husband was kind enough to slice all of the berries, but I realized I only had a small container of pectin. So after 3 trips to the store and one wrong pectin purchase, we were finally able to make about 12 jars of freezer jam. It was a whole family affair. My son loved smashing the berries and even my one year old had a turn at stirring! We didn't use the entire flat of strawberries because we wanted some for enjoying and for our dessert. So for about $12 ($ 9 half a flat and $3 in pectin) it comes out to about $1 a jar. Not bad when I know what is in it (except for pectin) and that we had fun making it. We can't wait to eat it and make more, as last year's supply ran out in May.