Last winter I fertilised the strawberry plants with a slurry made from worm castings. They rewarded me with the best crop we've had for years. By midsummer I was sick of picking them, even sick of eating them. Then we had quite a good autumn crop as well. I still can't believe I actually said, 'Oh no, not more strawberries'.
I preserved the berries we didn't eat by freezing them in a single layer on a tray, then, when they were frozen, transferring them to bags for long-term storage. A whole shelf of the freezer has been taken up with frozen berries, not just strawberries; the youngberries produced prolifically as well, and also made their way into the freezer. The intention was to use the frozen berries to make jam on a cold day.
Today was the day. The house smells like a jam factory and I now have 11 jars of strawberry jam. The youngberries are still waiting. It will be a while before I get to them because I've run out of jars. Red and green tomato chutney made in the summer and today's jam have used all my saved jars.
Excess plums and apricots can be similarly frozen at the peak of the harvest (halve them first) and brought out in the colder weather to turn into jam. A hint for anyone who does make strawberry jam: add the juice of a lemon to the fruit mixture to help it set as strawberries do not contain the pectin required for the jam to jell.
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