Strawberry Love

It's been awhile since I posted here.  I am in the throes of my busy season.  We had such a late start to summer with all the chilly damp weather.  Normally I would be finished with the strawberry harvest but I am still plugging away at it.  This is week 2 and to be honest, my legs aren't one bit happy about all that "bent" work for hours at a time.  It also doesn't help that all of a sudden we are having a heat wave following all of that rather cool weather so I haven't really had time to acclimate to the warmer temps.  I have been averaging about 15 lbs. every day but the berries are smaller this year too since we didn't have the sunshine they needed at the proper time.

I love the sweet smell of strawberries when I am picking.  There is no substitute for the real thing.  I have never smelled anything that was supposed to be strawberry scented that even remotely comes close to the way they actually smell.  The taste is so wonderful when they are warm from the garden and so juicy that your hands turn red from handling them.

Yesterday was my first round of Jam making.  A good ten hours on my feet - the house damp from the steam from the hot water canner as I processed the jars.  I love seeing the lovely dark red goodness shimmer in the line of jars cooling on the folded towel on the counter.

  Strawberries are always the first canning of the season for me and I still find it so exciting even after 30+ years of doing it every summer.  I have my own traditions as I prepare to begin this task - I ask a silent blessing on this endeavor and then load the stereo up with Joni Mitchell CD's - the early ones like Ladies of the Canyon, Blue, For the Roses, and my favorite, Miles of Aisles.  The tunes help to make for light work and remind me of my younger days as a Hippie when I would dream of having the homesteading life that I was lucky enough to eventually create for myself.

  There is a part of me that comes alive as each piece of fruit passes through my hands.  I am the quality control.  I decide which berries are perfect enough to put in my sugary brew and which ones will go to the chickens.  I wonder as I work, how many lifetimes I have done this dance?  How many times have I marveled at the beauty of how the berry grows, the artful designs that present differently in each berry as it's cut.  I think of how lucky I am to know such goodness that can't be bought in a store.

I feel so much Gratitude that I am so blessed to experience the grace of knowing my food - investing it with loving care and knowing that nothing that is imbued with that kind of energy could ever do me or my family harm.  Strawberry Love....