End of Season Berries

It seems like each summer the strawberry season ends long before I am ready.

This past weekend I picked up 4 one pound boxes of strawberries that looked delicious! Yet they were very tart and started to get soft rather fast. Yes, it is the end of the strawberry season. Plus I had approximately two pounds of strawberries in the fridge that our neighbors could not finish and passed on to us (they do not have a secondary freezer while we do).

So I started going through my mind of things I could do with these berries seeing they were not good for eating.

We often do the following with berries that are still good, just past their prime, or are tart.

1. Freeze cleaned sliced berries in 6 cup packages for jam making during the winter.
2. Freeze cleaned sliced berries in 2 cup packages for syrup over our waffles and pancakes.
3. Make jam.
4. Prepare syrup and freeze it.

I did number 4 yesterday.

First I sorted the berries and tossed any that had touches of mold or rot on them.

Then I sliced the cleaned berries into a sauce pan.

I added about half a cup of water to ensure the would not burn to the bottom and put them over medium heat.

I added enough sugar to get the sweetness I desired. I confess I added more than I would normally like to as the berries were very tart.

Once the mixture reached a boil I kept it at a low boil for about 10 minutes to make a nice deep red sauce, and to break up the berries a bit.

Then I added approximately 1-2 tbsp of corn starch mixed with water to thicken it and simmered a bit longer (if it is not thick enough you can add touch more using the same method.)

Once the syrup was a nice thickness I removed it from the heat and let it cool. Because it was close to supper time I popped the syrup into the fridge, and will freeze it in zip top bags that have the right amount for one breakfast in each bag.

And I have made good use of my end of season, very tart and slightly soft berries.


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