May is Strawberry month! Here is what I'm doing with the strawberries from my patch

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     YUP!  See all of those strawberries in that graphic above?  They are some of the many that have been coming out of my strawberry patch!  I am so happy with my strawberries this year.  Here is why.

    Last year I put a few strawberry plants in my garden box.  They began to produce a few strawberries, and just when they were ripe enough to pick, Maddy's puppy, Boots, ate them!  At first I thought the birds had gotten them, so I covered them with netting to protect them.  But, when I found the netting strewn all over my yard, I realized it was the dog.  It was pretty funny actually, because he had nipped them off the stems very carefully exactly when they were ripe and very carefully!  (He is a very smart dog who loves strawberries.)  Needless to say, I didn't end up harvesting many strawberries last year.  I decided that I needed a bigger strawberry patch.  That way between the birds, the dogs and the bugs, I might still end up with some strawberries for the family to enjoy.  
      
     Since strawberries reproduce very well on their own, I decided to try an experiment in my garden of wintering my existing plants over and allowing them to shoot out baby plants.  I trimmed them back, taking off all of the dead or damaged foliage.  I babied the babies.  In the winter when we had some freezing weather, I covered them with sheets to keep the frost off of them.  I fertilized them. I was determined to have a successful patch, something that has never before happened for me.  Hallelujah! My efforts paid off and my patch of strawberries has more than doubled! Then, in the early Spring, the strawberry blossoms began to appear!  
     These aren't just little bitty strawberries either!  There have been some really big ones! Here are a couple of my first ones: 

I put the quarter there to give you an idea of the size of the berries. There have been bigger ones since I harvested these!

     Since this is Strawberry Month, and because I am using my strawberries almost daily, I thought I would share some delicious strawberry recipe ideas with you today.  Here is a roundup! 

​Strawberry Lemonade:

I recently told you about the new juicer that I purchased especially in order to help me process my gifted lemons! Well, what perfect timing to also make Strawberry Lemonade!  My juicer made it so easy!  I used my juicer to mash up and juice the strawberries and also juiced 3 more of my remaining lemons.  I added water, sugar to taste and and the juices, including the strawberry pulp.  It was the most delicious strawberry lemonade I've ever made! 

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We've shared a ton of Strawberry Jam variations on the blog.  Here are a few of them you might like to check out:
Strawberry Jam
Strawberry Blueberry Jam
​Strawberry Lemonade Marmalade
​Strawberry Ginger Ale Jam


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Strawberry Rhubarb Pie:

Lindsey made this beautiful pie for our July 4th Celebration one year!  It was a favorite! 




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​Other ways to use your strawberries!

• Eat them plain
• Dip them in chocolate
• Dip them in powdered or brown sugar
• Slice them on your cereal
• Slice them into a fruit salad
• Slice them into Jello
• Use them in fruit kabobs
• Freeze dry them- Watch for a post coming soon telling you ways to use freeze dried strawberries, besides gobbling them up immediately. 

​Strawberry Shortcake:

Do you love the biscuit style of shortcake or the angel food style?  
I love both! 
Sliced strawberries, whipped cream with cake.  What's not to love?




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Strawberry Ice Cream:

With summer on its way, homemade strawberry ice cream sounds delicious!  I found this recipe on allrecipes and I am looking forward to trying it out this year! 

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Strawberry Pie:

Strawberry pie seems like a necessity at summer parties!  There are so many recipes out there to choose from, but if you want my favorite, click here to get our For The Love Of Pie Cookbook from our Etsy shop.  As a bonus, we top ours with chocolate whipped cream! YUM! 






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Can Strawberry Pie Filling! 

Had to update this post with this delicious method for canning Strawberry Pie Filling!  It is so delicious and beautiful in the jar.  I also included cute labels for you to print and attach to your jars!  They are so cute if I say so myself! Click on this link if you missed this post.

Do you have a favorite suggestion that you can share?  Please drop it in the comments! 
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