Berry Picking: Need recipes!!

I’m just trying to soak up the rest of summer and enjoy myself during this nice weather. I’ve been toying with the idea of going berry picking all summer and decided to just pull the trigger yesterday. I was hesitant because since we’re moving in less than a month it’s going to be annoying to put all this stuff that’s in my freezer and move it….but I just don’t think I can pass up the great prices.

I won’t have to buy berries from the grocery store all winter. I hardly use berries like these anyways. It’s just when I need them for a recipe/feel like a smoothie.  So I’m just going to suck it up, freeze them all and transport them when we move. NBD. It’s an absolutely awful time to be interested in preserving food and moving!

The place I was going to had a great mix- strawberries, raspberries, blueberries and green beans. I wasn’t really sure what to expect so I just headed back to the fields planning on getting a little of each.

The strawberries were the easiest. They were nice and big and easy to spot. Took me about 10 minutes to gather 3 pints.

The raspberries were a different story. I was so excited when I first saw them because they were HUGE and was about to dive in like a little kid…until I heard the buzzing of HUNDREDS of bees all around me. I’m a little scared of bees…I’m not allergic but I honestly can not remember ever getting stung by one (I might have been once but wasn’t sure) so I have always been scared of the ‘unknown’. I took me a while to get three pints dodging in and out of the less bee-populated bushes. They were sooooo good though so it was worth it (had to taste test them obviously).

After that I only had the energy to get one pint of blueberries. We don’t like them as much so that’s okay.

 

All in all I got three pints of strawberries, three pints of raspberries, one pint of blueberries, and a crap load of green beans (not a precise form of measurement).

My eyes were bigger than our freezer. I froze most of the goods but made a quick raspberry freezer jam with a pint of raspberries and honey. Freezer jam is just jam without a ton of added sugar and preservatives so you don’t can it and put pectin in it like regular jam, but you have to eat it or it goes bad obviously.  After trying to search on the internet all day yesterday I am still pretty clueless about how to make jam or jelly!! Do I need sterilized canning jars??? Do I need a pressure canner? Do I need to add sugar and pectin?? AHHHH so confused. Please link me to some of your trusted recipes! I bought a thing of no sugar needed pectin but I have no idea what to do with it. It says no sugar needed, but then when I Google a recipe there’s sugar added. Makes no sense. Help!!

I was on a full fledged sugar rush yesterday afternoon. They are so irresistible!!

This morning I made some N’oatmeal and topped it with some of the fresh berries and “jam” I had made.

Yum!

I need jam/jelly advice and recipes!!! Please help!

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