Berry, Berry Good

Yeah, bad pun, I know.

One of the benefits of living in SE PA is that there are a ton of pick-your-own places.  The local cooperative extensions do a pretty good job of publishing lists of local farmers, PYO, & markets.  It takes a little research to figure out which are worth a stop, but they're great research tools.  Here's Bucks, Montgomery (.pdf) and the Lehigh Valley's sites.  If you're in the area, you can occasionally grab printed ones at the library (if they still have them.)
Anyhow, these berries are black currants and red gooseberries from Tabora Farm and Sour and Rainier Cherries from Solebury Orchards.  It took about an hour at each place to pick all of them, so not bad time.  The Rainier were tougher because some rain the weekend before meant that a lot of the cherries had burst and finding ones that weren't bad took some time.  The Bings were already gone by the time I got there.  Darnitall.

I decided to make a chutney with the gooseberries, a simple sauce with the currants, and preserve the sour cherries in a medium syrup.  The Rainiers went to the kids.  I wasn't going to get a chance to put them up.

I realized that canning is a wonderful thing.  It's one of those things that takes a small initial investment, but is cheap in the long run, if you keep up with it.  Talk about the bounty of the season.  If you have good, cheap veggies, it only makes sense to save some for later.  Also, it doesn't require all the energy (or space) of putting stuff in the freezer and some things are better after being preserved for a while.  One note: consult a book or an extension service to make sure that you are doing it properly.  Nothing like a little Clostridium botulinum to ruin your day (or life).