First Peas and look inside a strawberry

The Mara des Bois strawberries are an intense red color.

There is very little white inside a ripe berry.

Now that we've had less rain, the flavor is more intense.
~
Today we picked the first peas.

This will make a great bedtime snack!

Four more quarts. . .

I picked four quarts of berries today.
This was picking only the first three beds (out of 11).
I had not picked them in three days.

I am trying something new.  I have had problems with berries molding in the refrigerator.

Now I am following a suggestion I read.  Put 1 Tablespoon of white vinegar in 2/3 cup of water and

briefly soak the berries.  I get quite a system going with two rinses then into the vinegar bath then onto containers in a single layer to drain.  Then slice.  So far, it's working.  There is no vinegar flavor.  They are just as sweet as you expect Mara des Bois strawberries to be.  Yum.

Some of the berries are huge.

That was an unexpected surprise!

 

June 15:  Picked 4 more quarts.

oh, boy, we can eat our fill!

I have had a dish of strawberries each day this week,
but today I picked seriously.
I picked 9 cups of berries, which cleaned to 7 cups.
Pig out time!

There is quite a variety of size and shape.

We're a little disappointed.
Although these are far superior to supermarket strawberries, this year we have had a huge amount of rain (2.5" in the first seven days of this month, with rain every single day!).  I wonder if this is why the flavor seems less intense than we remembered.

Still good, just not amazing.

On June 8, I picked 10 cups.  I froze some.

On June 10, a friend picked 6 cups and I picked 5.
June 11 - 4 quarts of sliced berries ready for freezer.  I didn't measure as I picked, but probably 7 quarts.
June 13 - two quarts ready for the freezer.  Gave the chickens lots of moldy berries.  Scared a snake in the garden!
June 18 - picked 5 quarts - froze 3.
June 22 - picked 4 quarts - froze 2 1/2

Pound Cake

I needed a "Dish to Pass" for a dinner.
Some of the strawberries are ripe, so I thought, "shortcake".
Well, I don't like biscuits as shortcake, so
I spent a long time looking up recipes,
checking pinterest,
America's Test Kitchen,
various famous chefs. . .

And came back to the always excellent Joy of Cooking. This is the pound cake from the 1964 edition.

It makes two loaves with 3/4 pound of butter and 8 eggs.
If you would like the recipe, let me know.

It's really excellent.
I had some plain.  D had some raspberry coulis.
We agreed that we should have whipped some cream.

I plan to soak some with Grand Marnier.
I'll serve the cake with strawberries and whipped cream.

Mara Des Bois Strawberries

 Our first dishes of strawberries.

We enjoyed two dishes of strawberries in the first picking.

The birds were not confused by the red rocks,
so we have had to put fencing over the beds.
~:~

Mama Hen and Auntie take the chicks out to teach them how the world works.












Everyone is enjoying the late spring.