Saturday, June 16, 2012

Strawberry Season



I think I've mentioned it here before, but the reason why I love photography and preserving food is that they both stop time. And I can't resist the two together. Some say that lifestyle photography is too stock, too fake. In some ways yes: my life isn't always a juicy tableau of strawberries and vintage tablecloths. But you know, some times it is. And that makes me happy.


Strawberries are a big part of my life right now. My own strawberry patch ripened so long ago! It's been finished for two weeks. But we have at least another good week to ten days of a great strawberry season here in the Hudson Valley, if the weather continues to stay cool. Of course, you might not mind saying goodbye because then there's blueberries and stone fruit on the horizon.

So, how to attack all those pounds of strawberries you picked? Well, so much of it is easily eaten out of hand. And then there's some for the freezer for smoothies and cold winter days. But then there's jam. I've been making quite a bit of it. And that means hulling a good deal of strawberries. Kaela from Local Kitchen swears by her strawberry huller: check it out in the top image of her recent excellent canning tips post. You can even see my comment asking about the huller!


So, that compelled me to make a little video today showing how I hull my strawberries. It's this little tool above, that I love so. I talked about it in my quince video. It's very handy. I call it the mini melon baller, cause isn't that sort of ridiculous to say? Melon ballers come in all sorts of sizes, and some of them are sharp! The Kitchn did a piece on melon ballers while ago.  



So, by the way, I wasn't trying to hide my eyes so no one could recognize me hulling these innocent strawberries. Somehow, in exporting my video to YouTube it cropped the top of the frame. Strawberry season will be over by the time I figure this out, so I went with it! How are you hulling your strawberries?

17 comments:

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    1. Hey Sarah! Always good to hear from you, thanks for stopping in!

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  2. Julia, love the movie. I also use a small knife and have found it a perfectly adequate tool for the job. However I'm easily swayed, especially by my canning chums, so both Kaela's specialist huller and your mini melon baller are on my shopping list. And I wonder why my house is packed to bustin with stuff!

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    1. Oh gosh, Gloria, thanks! I'm fiddling around with it. Lately, I've been wanting to get rid of so much in my house, but then new stuff always finds its way in, so I understand entirely! Sorry to be an enabler!

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  3. fun! how much do you get out of your own patch, just out of curiosity? and do you find the flavor really different from berries picked on the big farms? We did not deal with a ton of berries this year and just used a knife to hull em all - nothing worth recommending there! BTW, the cherries at Fix Bros in Hudson this AM were delicious - think it's going to be the last week for them, though.

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    1. Whoops! I missed this, Eve. Sorry!

      My strawberry patch chugs out at least 10 quarts of berries each year. More than a flat! The type of berry I have aren't particularly sweet or have a distinctive strawberry flavor, but I am just so proud that they are mine (and that I work so little for them, and they are organic to boot!) that they taste better than any boughten ones!

      So- glad you had fun at Fix! I don't usually think of them because they are so far away, but it's a great spot.

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  4. Awesome video. I usually just use a knife but that mini melon baller looks perfect.

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  5. That video is the cutest! You know I love my grapefruit spoon-huller combo, but now I'm going to have to consider a mini melon baller, too. Because quince will be back before we know it. Yay.

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    1. I'm having fun with the videos! So, that yay didn't sound too enthusiastic...; )

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  6. Excellent -- an excuse for me to go kitchen gadget shopping! YAY!

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  7. I love summer citrus! Love this.

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  8. Hey there Julia, I always just use a little paring knife to hull the strawberries. Your nifty tool looks way better;)
    xo
    E

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    1. Hey Erin!! Always good to hear from you. I'm sure the little paring knife is just fine! ; )
      x

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