Week 2: Berries Galore

Berries for Week 2! This week, the highlight of our recipes was fresh berries. Unfortunately, Eva and I didn't have any berries from our own garden to use because, as we later learned, they aren't in season yet. This also meant that our original plan to go to berry picking farms and "U-Pick" our own berries would not work either... we're saving that adventure for another time. As we spoke to some farmers, they told us that we actually missed the berry picking time by a couple of weeks, so we decided to go with Plan B: supporting local businesses and buying fresh berries from the farmers' market. This was both a learning experience about berry picking season, as well as a step towards our goal of supporting local companies when our own gardens can't provide ingredients and making dishes we've never made before. 

We purchased fresh strawberries and blackberries and made up a mini strawberry shortcake, complete with homemade whipped cream sandwiched between a flaky, buttery biscuit. Yes, it was as delicious as it sounds. The tartness of the berries complimented the sweetness of the whipped cream, and the biscuits were gone by the end of the day. We also made a quick strawberry compote by heating up some strawberries and letting them get warm to add some texture. Even in this one recipe, we learned how to use berries in multiple different ways. 

 

Our berry adventures did not stop at the biscuits! Continuing on the path of learning how to use berries in different ways, we decided to make jam with our berries. Eva made marionberry jam and I made blueberry jam (seen in the pictures below). At the beginning of quarantine, I picked up the hobby of making jam and learned that I didn't need pectin (a thickening substance) to make a successful jam. With just 3 ingredients: fruit, lemon juice, and honey, it's much easier to make jam than you'd think! This was a super fun and easy activity that anyone could do at home, and it'd be interesting to see what combinations of fruits make the most delicious jam, without any added sugars. 

 

A challenging, but slightly entertaining, moment from this week was Eva's unfortunate encounter with a bunny bandit. A bunny hopped its way into Eva's garden and ate a lot of her lettuce before she could pick them. However, this was a learning experience for both of us. Luckily, the bunny didn't eat a lot of other plants because they like lettuce, and Eva was able to mitigate any future incidents like this by putting her plants in a higher location. Because a lot of critters also hang out in my backyard, this is something I will definitely watch out for. Here's some evidence of the incident: