We planted both raspberries and strawberries over the last few years and are getting so many we can’t eat them all. We give them away, but is there something better we can do with them?
Edit: thanks for all the great responses. I think we’re going to freeze them.
Jam.
could make juice, then make something with the pulp too
Too many?
Pies
Freeze them
Dry them
Jam
How about jam? It’ll last longer than berries.
Jam’s a fair bit of work.
And with this heat? No thank you.
How about some sweet berry wine?
But, but… Botanically speaking neither strawberries nor raspberries are actual berries. Fun fact: grapes are, so that makes any regular wine a berry wine.
Strawberry shortcake for every meal
Dehydrate them. Dehydrated fruit makes for tasty and healthy snacks.
You can just freeze them for smoothies. Everyone is saying jam and that’s a good idea but it’s a whole process and has to be sanitary. It’s not super hard, obviously, and it’s worth learning how to do but the first time can be a bit daunting and you really have to follow every step. A smoothie is easy.
Another pretty easy thing is to make ice cream and freeze it. A restaurant I cooked at had fig trees that would go nuts once a year and we’d have buckets of figs. We basically made vanilla ice cream and added figs. That was delicious and ice cream obviously freezes well.
As someone that cans, I’d never suggest a canning option to anyone but someone who has already canned. It’s tiring! It’s hot! It can be sticky!
Amazing end results if you like doing it though!
Raspberry jam is insanely easy to make. Equal weights of fruit and sugar, heat slowly to dissolve the sugar, then boil rapidly for five minutes. Bung in jars and screw the lids on while still hot.
The only sterile part is the jars - I put them in a lowish oven for ten minutes or so after washing them. Lids are washed, dried and swabbed with vinegar.
The sterilization part is what I was concerned about. People who make jam the first time don’t necessarily know how critical that is. You really cannot take shortcuts and be like, “I just washed it. It’s fine.”
I’m still eating blackcurrant jam I made in 2013. I use jars whose lids have the pop-up seals. Pour hot jam into hot jars, screw on the lid and the little thingie in the middle should pop down as it cools, showing it’s sealed. When you open the jar it pops up again, to show the seal is broken. Just about all my jars come from a particular brand of pitted kalamata olives I’m partial to. Perfect size for jam.
When I was a child mum sealed the jars of jam with a disc of cellophane that had been dampened in vinegar, fastened with a rubber band. Pretty good seal actually, it tightened as the jam cooled. But if the jam went mouldy we’d just scrape the mould off - no big deal.
Smoothies for sure. Oat milk, banana, and a scoop of peanut butter.
jam.
but if not jam you can go to any local big box store that does home appliances and almost always find a chest freezer for under 100 dollars. Throw the berries into 1 gallon bags and figure the rest out later. I promise you will find more uses for additional freezer space.
I promise you will find more uses for additional freezer space.
And this is how you end up with multiple freezers lol
Sorbet!
+1. Buy an ice cream maker and use these to make sorbet; you’ll never have too many strawberries and raspberries again.
Juice, pie, jam. Pie being my favorite 😋😋
Me please
If I had them, I’d process the strawberries by generously cutting the tops off (don’t throw them away!) then putting them on a parchment lined sheet pan to freeze, then once frozen, into freezer safe bags. With the tops, make kvass. Put them in a pitcher with a lot of sugar and some spices, fill the pitcher with boiled and cooled water. Cover loosely with a towel and stir twice a day until fizzy. I have some in my fridge right now and it’s delicious!
You can put them in the freezer for use in months when they don’t grow.
Jelly, jam, compote, syrups for juices, and liqueur are all long-lasting things you can make with them.
Fruit wine or a melomel.
I used to make raspberry wine. Super easy. Some raspberries, sugar, and yeast. Put it in a barrel, wait a while, get shitfaced.
It’s definitely easy to do. If OP freezes them first then mashes them later it could help break down some of the sugars, but it’s a good time, stays a while, and makes easy gift giving.
