I can has strawberreeez?

It has been a while--blame Dell.

Finally the farmers markets in San Francisco have lovely (non citrus) fruit. Last week I made "Mrs. Holt's Strawberry Preserves," a recipe from Mrs. Don S. Holt of Concord, N.C., published in Pickles and Preserves (1955).

The recipe calls for layering the berries and sugar in a kettle, then bringing to a boil. I wasn't careful enough in heeding the note that the first layer should be sugar--with a thick layer of sugar on the bottom of the pot, the sweet stuff cooks down to a liquid into which the berries sink. If any berry touches the bottom of the pan, the fruit burns before the sugar comes up to temperature.

Live and learn--in the end, I had to make two batches. The satisfying pop of the finished jars was worth it.

My camera is also broken, so here's a picture of Liz's pig.

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