Strawberry haul is processed

I have become really cognizant of how many times we put TONS of effort into processing some kind of item harvested from our property only to have it gather dust in the back of a pantry shelf. I don’t mind it when we grow excess produce, because the chickens and goats love it. But in my recent kitchen reorganization project I found at least a dozen jars of some strange peach-based jam or sauce - I honestly do not know what I intended there. But it was gross. I also found some apple butters I did last year, but they also did not look very appetizing. I know in garden seasons past I have put up dozens of jars of green beans, but other than stir-fry, we don’t really eat green beans. I often find random “chutney-ish” jars. And I still have many dozens of frozen processed tomato “disks” in the freezer, evidence of my 40 feet of tomato plants last year.

The sure-fire items that will get eaten when we process them up include applesauce, pickled beets, and today’s Spotlight Produce Item - freeze-dried strawberries! They are so easy to process, and the taste just PUCKERS you with fresh flavor. We eat them by the handful as snacks, I add them to oatmeal occasionally, and we sometimes rehydrate some and add sugar for an ice cream sundae or pound cake topping.

Here is what they look like when they have been freeze-dried. And again, they could last forever shelf-stable, but in this house they won’t last long!

We lay down a little parchment paper on the trays just to make clean-up easier.

Montana bought this handy little commercial-grade dispenser to make filling bags and jars easier.

We always tuck the little moisture absorber packets into the jars and bags to ensure they stay dry. And I really should be using the thicker freezer bags for this storage, but I ran out.

They look just like they did when sliced, just a slightly “crunchy” texture.