Berries and Dutch Ovens

Up bright and early Mary and Elaine joined us to go pick more berries. This time we were on the hunt for Raspberries and Marion Berries at another U-Pick farm near Sweet Home, Oregon.

Here's Elaine showing off the fruits of their labor . . . over ten pounds.

They decided to make Cherry Chutney out of the cherries they picked yesterday. When they were finished with the chutney they still had energy to put up jars and jars of Raspberry and Marion Berry Jam.

Isn't this Cherry Chutney pretty. They gave us a jar, and I can't wait to taste it!

This is our pickings for the day . . . Raspberries on the right, and a mix of Olalaberries and Marion Berries on the left. These all went into the freezer for later use except the mixed berries I used for tonight's cobbler.

Speaking of dinner, today was our day to fix dinner. We planned ahead to make dinner using our cast iron Dutch ovens just like we were taught by our friend Lori, a new member at Park Sierra. She taught a class during Stagecoach Days two years ago, and we got "hooked" on the idea of acquiring a couple ovens and trying it ourselves. Last summer we made several berry cobblers which were quite a hit, but never tried doing more than one oven at a time. This year we took the big step— had three ovens going at one time. It took a bit of coordinating preparation and cooking so that everything was done at the same time, give or take a few minutes. But Lori's recipes were a hit, and we had lots of fun pulling it off. Our menu included fresh Sourdough Bread, Lasagna, Salad (the only thing not done in an oven), and Fresh Marion Berry Cobbler.

Here Ken is getting lots of charcoal going, with each oven
needing about 25 briquettes.

Ken was a big help, these ovens are quite heavy. I prepared all the food and loaded up the ovens. He carried them down to the cooking area and arranged all the hot coals.

Baking bread was something I've never done, outside of using a bread machine. It was a real adventure making the starter, which I really blew but in the end had just enough for this one loaf of bread. I'll have to tell you about it sometime, Lori.

We could smell the cobbler baking, and oh my
—it did smell heavenly. I didn't get a good picture of the Lasagna, but it was delicious.

Elaine was practically drooling while slicing the bread.

Mary loved the bread so much she even had a second piece
. . . unlike her, indeed.

Nothing better than warm berry cobbler
with vanilla ice cream for dessert.

Life is Good!