(Music from Queen's "Bicycle Race") Strawberry! ... Strawberry!

[bvar22]

I want to eat some Strawberries,
I want to eat them NOW.
I want to eat some Strawberries,
I want to eat them when I like!
(sung while picking Strawberries)

We moved South in 2006 (Ouachita Mountains, Arkansas), and started growing our own.
We grow two different varieties:
an early "June Bearing" (Sequoia), and an "Ever Bearing" (Ozark Beauties).
(The "Ever-bearing" is not quite true. They stop in June, with maybe a few in late Summer).
The two peaks overlap in the Spring for an extended harvest.
The Strawberries are peaking now,
and we are picking about a gallon a day.
This is a HUGE pain in the lower back,
and we are discussing ways of raising the plants up higher,
like planting in the holes of a cinder block terrace retaining wall.
We have found Strawberries to be very Labor Intensive,
but worth the effort.



We are having fresh, ripe Strawberries for breakfast,
Strawberry Short cake,
Strawberry Ice Cream,
Strawberry Sorbet,
and putting up 4 pints of Strawberry preserves/Frozen Strawberries every 2 days.

Strawberry plants are very hardy,
easily surviving the coldest Winter here.
The biggest pain is thinning them out in the Spring,
but not every year is like this one.
This has been a GOOD year for Berries, so far.
The Blueberries are next, and look good.
Then come the wild Blackberries!

OTOH:
A very late freeze combined with an extended period of unusually HIGH winds
has ruined any chances of Peaches, Plums, or Apples here this year.

(I feel a little guilty posting this
because other DUers are having a difficult year.
Good Luck and Fertility to all.)

[Retrograde]

1. jealous of your strawberries, sympathetic on the peaches

I picked 2 strawberries today, the week's crop. Maybe if the plants spent more time thinking about reproduction than world domination I'd get some more. Too early to tell about the sour cherries yet.

We've been having unseasonably cool and wet weather in the SF Bay Area. I'm seriously considering knitting little sweaters for the tomatoes and peppers.