Berries Galore

While Aiden was busy at Camp Invention this week, Nathan and I got a lot done. We took part in quite a few fun activities and one of those was berry picking. We wanted to get some strawberries before the u-pick season ended, so we headed out armed with a Groupon for 50% off berries at a local farm. One of the very great things about living in the Portland area (especially on the west side) is that we are only 10-15 minutes away from more farms than we could possibly count. We have our favorites for sure, but it's always fun to check out a new one. This time we were headed to Hoffman Farms and we definitely loaded up on berries!

We were there during a bit of a lull, so there weren't very many people (and at one point it was just Nathan and I in the strawberry field). It was quiet, warm, and I took a few minutes to admire the beautiful valley that we live in. Ahhh....

Strawberries!

When it was all done, we had 8 1/2 lbs of strawberries and 1 lb of raspberries and 1 lb of blueberries. We now have three jars of raspberry jam and ten jars of strawberry. We ate the blueberries. Sorry, let me rephrase: Aiden ate the blueberries.

I still had some strawberries left over (more than I wanted to freeze for later use), so I decided to give homemade fruit leather a try. It was so amazingly easy and it's SOOOO good. It takes quite a bit of time in the oven, so you have to be prepared to give up your oven for most of a day, but it's worth it.

I put 1 1/2 lbs of strawberries and a 1/2 cup of sugar in the food processor and pureed it for one minute. I did add about a tsp of lime juice just for an added kick, but it's probably fine without it.

After pureeing, I poured it all into a saucepan and brought it to a boil. Warning: it does tend to foam up a bit, so you may want to opt for a large saucepan. Once it was boiling, I simmered it for 10-12 minutes to let it thicken.

Once it was thickened, I poured it onto a cookie sheet and spread it all out evenly with a spatula.

I then put it in the oven around 175-ish degrees (it was the "warm" setting on my oven) for about 6 hours. Basically until it's no longer massively sticky and it looks like your standard fruit leather. Let it cool all the way and then eat it as your heart desires. You will notice that there are no "after" pictures here. Yeah. It's that good.

Now we can't wait for boysenberries, marionberries, and blackberries!