Stash Bash???

The harvest is coming in, and I keep telling myself I won't get into the same position I was in last year.  Last year, I filled my freezer.  I filled the freezer at work, and I had some things in the freezer at my mom's house (she lives a half hour away).  This year, I am attempting to can more items, and just plain use them up.

So, raspberries...I had a big container of them in the freezer, and I need to make room for the vegetables starting to be ready...and we don't really use a lot of frozen raspberries.  Solution:  stash bash the berries.

I just boiled them up (4 cups raspberries with 1 cup water) until the colour was pretty much drained out of the berries, and then passed them through a sieve to remove the seeds.  Rich, thick, raspberry juice.  Almost raspberry concentrate.

We poured it over vanilla ice cream (after it cooled of course) for the most intense raspberry float I have ever tasted.  The extra was stored in a mason jar in the fridge for a repeat performance the next day.  4 cups of raspberries was enough for 6 small floats like you see pictured above.

Next year, I think I might boil them without water to make a really concentrated juice, to can, that we can mix into water in the middle of winter for a nice summer reminder.

Blackberries are going into the freezer now to make jam when I have enough, but I might just have to save a few for blackberry floats.

Gonna link this one up for stash bash over at Crunchy Catholic Momma just for fun, and also to Creative Friday at Natural Suburbia