How to Pick Strawberries
Large or small, every red berry is ripe, luscious and ready to eat. So pick all the red ones you can find in your assigned row.

Green or white berries will not ripen after picking.

Look under the leaves of each strawberry plant to find the berries; pinch or pull stem from the plant. Leave the stem and hull on each berry when possible.


Take Them Home
Remember strawberries are perishable and need to be handled gently. Protect the berries from sunlight and excessive heat....particularly in your car.


Storing Your Berries
Before storing or processing, sort berries; use the ripest ones first.

Place in shallow containers to prevent crushing. Store immediately in refrigerator.

Do not rinse or remove stems until ready to serve or process.


Making Strawberry Jam
Strawberry jam is easy to make! You can freeze the berries to make jam later if you don't have time to make it now. Make sure you measure the fruit before you freeze it.

Each box of pectin gives recipes for jam making. Ball, Sure-Gel or Kerr brands have all worked well for me. Cooked jam calls for 5 cups of crushed berries per batch. Freezer jam calls for 2 cups fruit per batch. A 5 quart pail of berries will yield approximately 10 cups of crushed fruit. Consult your recipe inside the box of pectin for exact amounts.


Oops!
If you should happen to undercook your jam or use too little sugar it won't jell up as firmly as you might like, but failed jam makes the greatest strawberry syrup on earth!!


How to Freeze Strawberries
Unsweetened: Pack whole, sliced or crushed berries in freezer containers. With this method there is some loss of flavor. Mainly used for berries you will later use for jam.

Dry sugar pack: Place whole, sliced or crushed berries in a bowl. Sprinkle sugar over berries, using 3 - 6 Tablespoons of sugar for each quart of berries. Mix gently until sugar dissolves. Set aside until juice forms. Package and freeze. This method yields berries acceptable for desserts as well as for jam.

Syrup pack: Make a syrup using 1 1/4 C. water to each cup of sugar. Pack berries in containers, cover with cooled syrup, using 1/2 to 2 C. syrup per pt. of berries. Label and freeze. Traditionally the best method for preparing strawberries for dessert purposes, but it does use the most sugar.