We planted both raspberries and strawberries over the last few years and are getting so many we can't eat them all. We give them away, but is there something better we can do with them?

Edit: thanks for all the great responses. I think we're going to freeze them.

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[–] 54 points 1 year ago (3 children)

How about jam? It'll last longer than berries.

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  • [+] 6 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (3 children)
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    [–] 32 points 1 year ago (7 children)

    Dehydrate them. Dehydrated fruit makes for tasty and healthy snacks.

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  • [–] 18 points 1 year ago (6 children)

    You can also pulverize them into powder after drying them and make your own sports drink mix!

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  • [–] 5 points 1 year ago (5 children)

    grind it up fine enough and you could rail or boof it

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  • [–] 2 points 1 year ago (4 children)

    I'm trying to imagine what a bump of rass would be like. i just... hmm.

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  • [–] 3 points 1 year ago (3 children)

    could prob boof some blueberries without issue

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  • [–] 3 points 1 year ago (2 children)

    This is true but less interesting to me because I once had a job in a bakery making blueberry muffins. I had 50 lb bags of frozen blueberries that upon opening, would emit large clouds of blueberry aroma. Day after day, thousands of pounds of blueberries, so much blueberry vapor. I grew to hate the smell. I begged to be put on some other kind of muffin, but nope, I was the youngest and therefore lowest status in the bakery. So I'm not really a fan of blueberries.

    Thank you for coming to my Ted talk.

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  • [–] 2 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    This is true but less interesting to me because...

    Soo... how many blueberries would you say you can boof?

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  • [–] 2 points 1 year ago

    I see. Thanks for clarification. I assumed we were talking about snorting lines of powdered fruit. When it comes to putting blueberries into my butthole, I'd say I could manage half a pint, maybe more.

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  • [–] 22 points 1 year ago (4 children)

    You can just freeze them for smoothies. Everyone is saying jam and that’s a good idea but it’s a whole process and has to be sanitary. It’s not super hard, obviously, and it’s worth learning how to do but the first time can be a bit daunting and you really have to follow every step. A smoothie is easy.

    Another pretty easy thing is to make ice cream and freeze it. A restaurant I cooked at had fig trees that would go nuts once a year and we’d have buckets of figs. We basically made vanilla ice cream and added figs. That was delicious and ice cream obviously freezes well.

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  • [–] 0 points 1 year ago (2 children)

    Raspberry jam is insanely easy to make. Equal weights of fruit and sugar, heat slowly to dissolve the sugar, then boil rapidly for five minutes. Bung in jars and screw the lids on while still hot.

    The only sterile part is the jars - I put them in a lowish oven for ten minutes or so after washing them. Lids are washed, dried and swabbed with vinegar.

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  • [–] 2 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    The sterilization part is what I was concerned about. People who make jam the first time don’t necessarily know how critical that is. You really cannot take shortcuts and be like, “I just washed it. It’s fine.”

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  • [–] 1 point 1 year ago

    I'm still eating blackcurrant jam I made in 2013. I use jars whose lids have the pop-up seals. Pour hot jam into hot jars, screw on the lid and the little thingie in the middle should pop down as it cools, showing it's sealed. When you open the jar it pops up again, to show the seal is broken. Just about all my jars come from a particular brand of pitted kalamata olives I'm partial to. Perfect size for jam.

    When I was a child mum sealed the jars of jam with a disc of cellophane that had been dampened in vinegar, fastened with a rubber band. Pretty good seal actually, it tightened as the jam cooled. But if the jam went mouldy we'd just scrape the mould off - no big deal.

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  • [–] 20 points 1 year ago

    Pies

    Freeze them

    Dry them

    Jam

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  • [–] 18 points 1 year ago (2 children)

    jam.

    but if not jam you can go to any local big box store that does home appliances and almost always find a chest freezer for under 100 dollars. Throw the berries into 1 gallon bags and figure the rest out later. I promise you will find more uses for additional freezer space.

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  • [–] 16 points 1 year ago

    Juice, pie, jam. Pie being my favorite 😋😋

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  • [–] 11 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    Sell them at a Farmers Market? Donate them to a local homeless shelter or food bank?

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  • [–] 8 points 1 year ago

    or churches for donations

    my mother in law has given a lot of produce from her garden to the different places that will take it. Hearing her recall the number of years and the amounts donated makes me happy. Just thinking of that is good medicine

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  • [–] 8 points 1 year ago

    Like the others: jam.

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  • [–] 7 points 1 year ago (2 children)
  • [–] 2 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    I used to make raspberry wine. Super easy. Some raspberries, sugar, and yeast. Put it in a barrel, wait a while, get shitfaced.

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  • [–] 7 points 1 year ago
    [–] 6 points 1 year ago (1 child)
  • [–] 6 points 1 year ago*

    If I had them, I'd process the strawberries by generously cutting the tops off (don't throw them away!) then putting them on a parchment lined sheet pan to freeze, then once frozen, into freezer safe bags. With the tops, make kvass. Put them in a pitcher with a lot of sugar and some spices, fill the pitcher with boiled and cooled water. Cover loosely with a towel and stir twice a day until fizzy. I have some in my fridge right now and it's delicious!

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  • [–] 5 points 1 year ago

    Freezer Jam:

    https://southernbite.com/easy-strawberry-freezer-jam/

    It's not shelf stable, but it will keep in the fridge for 3 weeks or in the freezer for a year.

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  • [–] 5 points 1 year ago

    I imagine spicy or sour berry-based sauces could go really well with things from salads to BBQ.

    I like berries, especially frozen, in my water or lemonade.

    Let neighbourhood kids know they're welcome to eat from your garden, and you can teach them to weed while you help them pick.

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  • [–] 5 points 1 year ago
    [–] 5 points 1 year ago

    Get a tortoise and feed the berries to it 👍

    (That's what we do at our house)

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  • [–] 5 points 1 year ago

    Jam? Jelly?

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  • [–] 4 points 1 year ago

    Jams amd in plain yogurt to "pump it up"

    Amd we freeze them for use on fresh made waffles later in the year.

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  • [–] 4 points 1 year ago*

    Yeah making jam is quite easy. Basically just add some sugar and pectin and put it on the stove until it's jam.

    Otherwise, put them in the freezer.

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  • [–] 4 points 1 year ago (2 children)

    Making jam is not trivial but it I think that makes it rewarding! My dad has made jam and marmalade for as long as I've known and it's always an event. My parents have hundreds of jars (for some reason my dad calls them bottles? Only in a jam context though!) and every so often he cooks up a giant pot of jam with an old-fashioned sugar thermometer, testing the batch on a piece of baking paper, then bottling everything up. He often did it with my sister, who now also makes her own jam.

    He labels all the jars, and we've opened jars that were... I dunno, a decade old I'm sure, and they were totally fine. So they will definitely keep for a long time!

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  • [–] 1 point 1 year ago (1 child)

    Making jam is trivial.

    You boil the fruit, and if it's not gummy enough, you add pectin.

    Done, jam.

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  • [–] 2 points 1 year ago

    How much sugar do you add?

    How long do you boil it for? (You don't know; you have to monitor the temperature)

    How long does putting it all in jars take you? (ages)

    It's not difficult, but it is time consuming and not trivial.

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  • [–] 4 points 1 year ago

    On raspberry pi host VPN

    On strawberry eat

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  • [–] 2 points 1 year ago

    Food fight!

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  • [–] 3 points 1 year ago
    [–] 3 points 1 year ago

    Strawberry shortcake for every meal

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  • [–] 2 points 1 year ago

    Freeze them. During the off season thaw some in the microwave and put it warm on ice cream.

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  • I have a pretty good canning set up, and strawberry jam is the first recipe in the book.

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  • [–] 2 points 1 year ago

    Enlists them in the army.

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  • [–] 2 points 1 year ago

    Jam or give away to your neighbours.

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  • [–] 1 point 1 year ago

    could make juice, then make something with the pulp too

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