Our strawberries froze this year, the harvest was small, but there was still enough to enjoy and make some small supplies for the winter.
What I usually do with strawberries is freeze the berries whole in plastic containers or disposable cups. It's very convenient to have a cup full of berries in the winter.
I puree some of the strawberries in a blender, adding a little sugar, fill the containers, and put them in the freezer. Frozen strawberries are my grandson's favorite treat.
And, of course, I make jam (a couple of jars). I really like strawberry jam—it's fragrant, thick, and full of whole berries.
I make several bottles of compote from the last, smallest strawberries and from wild strawberries, which also grow at our dacha. They make a very tasty and aromatic compote. Sometimes, for a brighter color, I add the last honeysuckle berries or serviceberries. The serviceberries begin to ripen just as the strawberries are beginning to ripen.
Strawberry jam recipe
I make jam according to this recipe: for every kilogram of berries, I use 1 kilogram of granulated sugar and a little citric acid.
I wash the berries, stems included, under running water. Then I separate the sepals, saving them for later use. I dry them, and then brew strawberry tea with them.
I lay the berries on a towel to let the water drain off and dry them.
I layer the sugar and strawberries in a wide saucepan and let them sit at room temperature for a while. Once the strawberries release their juices, I gently stir them with a wooden spoon.
I place the saucepan on the stove and bring it to a boil over medium heat. Skim off any foam. Reduce the heat and simmer for 5 minutes.
I turn off the stove and add a little citric acid to the jam. The citric acid is needed to keep the berries from overcooking and to keep them whole and firm. I leave the pan on the stove.
When the jam has cooled, I bring it to a boil again over low heat, cook for another five minutes and pour it into sterile jars, screwing on the lids.
We only got two jars out of our strawberries, so we decided to see if there were any strawberries at the market.
At our old dacha we had half a plot of land under strawberries.
The harvest was plentiful, and we sometimes sold the berries ourselves. There was always plenty of local strawberries, and summer residents sold their harvest by the bucketful. This year (2022), there are no local vendors at the market; the strawberries and wild strawberries froze, both at the summer cottages and in the meadows.
But there are a lot of strawberries from Kyrgyzstan, sold in small boxes. The berries are small, fresh, fragrant, beautiful, and delicious!
We bought a box, froze half of it, and I made some aromatic jam from the other half.
I got four more small jars.
This will be enough time to enjoy aromatic and delicious jam throughout the winter.
I liked your idea of freezing chopped strawberries – I've never done that before. It's a really interesting idea! By the way, that's the first time I've heard of using the sepals for tea. I'll have to try it. And if I like it, I'll dry them too.
I want to share how I make strawberry jam so the berries stay whole. I dry them like you do, but then I make a separate sugar syrup and add the dried berries to it. This way, they set right away and don't fall apart.