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.

            • Bongo_Stryker@lemmy.ca
              3·
              2 days ago

              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.

                • Bongo_Stryker@lemmy.ca
                  2·
                  1 day 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.

  • ShittyBeatlesFCPres@lemmy.worldEnglish
    22·
    2 days ago

    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.

    • RebekahWSD@lemmy.world
      3·
      1 day ago

      As someone that cans, I’d never suggest a canning option to anyone but someone who has already canned. It’s tiring! It’s hot! It can be sticky!

      Amazing end results if you like doing it though!

    • MrsDoyle@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      11·
      1 day ago

      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.

      • ShittyBeatlesFCPres@lemmy.worldEnglish
        2·
        1 day ago

        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.”

        • MrsDoyle@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
          1·
          1 hour 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.

    • festus@lemmy.caEnglish
      1·
      10 hours ago

      +1. Buy an ice cream maker and use these to make sorbet; you’ll never have too many strawberries and raspberries again.

  • razorcandy@discuss.tchncs.de
    11·
    2 days ago

    You can put them in the freezer for use in months when they don’t grow.

    Jelly, jam, compote, syrups for juices, and liqueur are all long-lasting things you can make with them.