It's Berry Time!

Do you ever feel like the ant from the ant and the grasshopper? That's how I feel especially during berry time!

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Last week was the end of strawberry season here on our little Island. Talk about making it in by the hair of your teeth! I loaded up our van with my four children, met a friend with her four children and we headed out to the Second Wind Llama Ranch here on PEI. What a fantastic place to go picking. Lots of room, lots of berries, great owner and great prices ($1.25/lb) In two hours, and lots of talking later, my family picked 36lbs of strawberries and probably ate a pound or two along the way. We took them home, washed them, stemmed them and then bagged them for the winter. We make strawberry smoothies, rollups, shortcake and jam all year round from them.

* I have a fantastic strawberry jam recipe that I make from frozen berries when the weather is cooler and it only takes half of the sugar. Let me know if you are interested and I'll post it. *

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This week is raspberry picking. We were going to head out tonight, but the beach called us instead. Hmm. Hard decision. Stanhope beach is our favourite here. Hopefully the rain tomorrow doesn't turn the raspberries mouldy and we will get them picked on Friday.

I have a great crop of black berries producing in the backyard this year as well. Pretty excited as this will be my first year making blackberry jam.

Blueberries I despise picking, could be because of the horrible poisoning experience I had when I was a small child. I just get them in a box from a friend down the road. It's my splurge.

Tell me, do you pick berries for the winter? What do you do with them? What type of berries are you picking?

Enjoy your day!