Sweet Santa Maria

I have decided that this is the best part of living in Santa Maria...the strawberries. A friend from the ward clued me into the secret of "Jam Berries!" The strawberry stands sell their berries that are apparently a little older at about half the price. I say "apparently" because I got three full flats, my friend got three flats and between the two of them, we found 2 bad berries! They were some of the best strawberries I have ever had. Yummy!

It was almost a shame to moosh them all up and make jam out of them. We did it anyway. Yesterday was my first jam making experience (besides helping cut up plums for my mom and dad...I wasn't too involved in that...didn't learn a thing). We started at about 9:30 in the morning and didn't finish until 5:oo last night. It was really fun, though. We made regular, some with less sugar, and some with no sugar, just Splenda). The less sugar version is my favorite. As you can see, I made enough to last a while and still had half a flat of strawberries left over.

This was an eye-opening experience for me. I learned that making Strawberry jam is about the easiest thing ever to do. I thought it was going to be hard. It was so easy that this morning, I decided to make a batch of boysenberry jam too...just for the heck of it. Any how...whenever I am really productive, I like to share it with everyone. Hope all is well with you all! Hasta!