It took 3 grueling days, but we have finally completed our mission of making strawberry jam from almost every strawberry picked at the farm last week. I did sneak a dozen or so strawberries to make a virgin strawberry daiquiri for myself, and the girls and I would get handfuls for snacks. However, the majority of the strawberries were used for our many, many, many jars of strawberry jam. We ended up making 4 double batches of jam where each single batch is supposed to result in 8-8 ounce jars. As you can see we didn’t use just 8 oz. jars but had a combination of 8 oz, 12 oz, and 16 oz jars. I will say that Mike did most of the work, but I was always the sugar measurer/pourer, the lid putter onner, and the dish washer for each batch.

Here’s Mike getting ready for the first batch. He’s so proud! And, yes, he’s growing another mustache. It will be shorn very soon if I have anything to do with it. He usually tries to pull this one when he goes out of town by himself.

It takes about 2 of these bowls of strawberries for each double batch.

And the results. Just in case you’re wondering, there are 46 jars total. I really hope we don’t get sick of strawberry jam.

Something I’ve always wanted to do but have never gotten around to doing is strawberry picking. I finally got that opportunity on Thursday evening when we went with a couple other families to a local strawberry farm in town. And the timing seemed perfect because it was a paradise of strawberries for as far as the eyes could see. Mike was ambitious and got us 6 baskets to load up because the farm was offering a special of buy 5 baskets and get one free. We gave each girl a basket, too, in hopes that they could contribute even just a fraction of the workload.

Mimi wasn’t so successful. Somehow all the strawberries she picked ended up in her belly.

Annie was quite the worker bee. She filled up an entire basket with suitable strawberries. She was so proud of herself and even asked if she could get a job there. When it was time to pay up for our pickins’ Annie actually asked the teenage girl who worked there if she could have a job, too. We’ll see how she feels when she actually reaches the legal employment age.

The final results of our labor. One family donated the 6th basket to us because it would have taken a bit longer to pick that last one. Thanks to the Johnsons for that.

All the kids (minus 1) who “helped” with all the picking and 2 families’ worth of strawberries. We sure will be busy making jam.

We started our jam session last night, but only got through one double batch which resulted in 20 8 oz jars. Two more double batches will probably be needed to get through the rest of the strawberries. Do the math, it’s a LOT of strawberry jam! Mike and I debated whether we should make that much jam, but I reminded him about how many pb&js I make each week. I’ll definitely post about it with pictures when the job is complete.

I mentioned a few posts ago that Mike went up to Minnesota to run a marathon. It’s always been a goal of Mike’s to run a marathon but also to run a specific marathon he grew up near which is the Grandma’s Marathon in Duluth. Of course, he had no intention of trying to win it or anything but just wanted the opportunity to finish it. Although Annie kept asking all week if was going to try to win a trophy. His overall time was 4 hours and 32 minutes. His friend, Buddy, also ran the race with him. Buddy has been a buddy (ha) of Mike’s for about 15 years and was Mike’s best man in our wedding.

Crossing the finish line.

How can my girls be deathly afraid of gnats, spiders, and mosquitoes but love finding and adopting earth worms? ISH!

Somehow I convinced myself that this new town we live in produced perfect weather all summer after the beautiful summer we had last year. I rarely, if ever, had to run the air conditioner, and there was only a handful of humid days. The locals tried to convince me that last summer was not the norm, but I would hear nothing of it. As I sit here in my air conditioned home with the thermostat cranked almost as low as it can go and with the sultry, 90+ degree weather since the weekend, I’m starting to believe that I was a little deluded last summer.

Mike was so excited to see that some of his radishes were ready for picking. The girls were super ecstatic, too, and insisted on trying some. They weren’t too thrilled when the taste didn’t match their enthusiasm. Hopefully, there will be more vegetables to pick soon.