Strawberry Fields . . . Forever
Ok, I couldn't resist using the Beatles song title. I'm sorry (especially to NES), but I had to do it.
It's strawberry season again! Which can mean only one thing . . . except not really. Not at all. Strawberry season means many things, all of which will probably end up here sooner or later. So I won't go into all of them now. However, the basis for all of them is one thing: picking!
Yesterday, mom and I went strawberry picking! We were actually planning on going on Wednesday morning, but, well, rain prevented that. As fun as slightly dewy strawberry leaves can be, somehow drenched-with-rain ones just don't sound as fun. Just saying.
It was also odd to go in the afternoon for once. Usually, picking strawberries is a first thing in the morning task, but because of the rain delay, it just didn't happen in the morning. But thankfully, it was a gorgeous 72 degree day and the sun wasn't too brutal in the afternoon. It was warm though. I missed last year's cloudy day. But I'm not sure I could really complain about the weather. It was pretty wonderful.
I've already expounded on the amazing-ness of the strawberry plant and how it grows, so I won't bore you with that again. But I will say, I think strawberries are a hardier plant than we sometimes give them credit for. Berries, in general, do have a reputation of being kind of . . . well, fragile. Which probably contributed to NM's concern that the strawberries would have frozen in the late frosts (since they were so early because of the warm winter) or if they weren't frozen, they'd rot because of last week's rain. It seems they did neither. Because they were plentiful. Mom and I together didn't even make it down half a row and it only took us about 20 minutes to pick a flat and a quart.
And it warmed my heart to hear the mother in the next row over telling her kids to "pick clean" and having two kids who couldn't have been older than 5 and 8 picking like crazy. No need to tell them only to pick red ones. No need to tell them to stop whining. No need to push them to keep going. I want kids like that someday. Seriously. I had almost started to doubt they existed any more.
Meanwhile, the gardens here are looking great! The cucumber plants look like they are ready to start creeping, and the tomatoes are beginning to flower.
And the garlic I planted is growing, at least . . . . I've discovered that garlic is supposed to be planted in the fall. Oops. I guess I should have looked that up before I decided to try it. But, hey, it's an experiment. We will see what happens.
And my herbs are filling the cup like crazy! I'm almost worried that I'm going to have to separate them before they even make it to our new back porch.
And, well, not garden related, but still fun: a bag of Cadbury eclairs showed up from the UK last week.
It's kind of a problem. They are kind of addictive. Oops. But they are so good. I love British candy!
It's strawberry season again! Which can mean only one thing . . . except not really. Not at all. Strawberry season means many things, all of which will probably end up here sooner or later. So I won't go into all of them now. However, the basis for all of them is one thing: picking!
Yesterday, mom and I went strawberry picking! We were actually planning on going on Wednesday morning, but, well, rain prevented that. As fun as slightly dewy strawberry leaves can be, somehow drenched-with-rain ones just don't sound as fun. Just saying.
It was also odd to go in the afternoon for once. Usually, picking strawberries is a first thing in the morning task, but because of the rain delay, it just didn't happen in the morning. But thankfully, it was a gorgeous 72 degree day and the sun wasn't too brutal in the afternoon. It was warm though. I missed last year's cloudy day. But I'm not sure I could really complain about the weather. It was pretty wonderful.
I've already expounded on the amazing-ness of the strawberry plant and how it grows, so I won't bore you with that again. But I will say, I think strawberries are a hardier plant than we sometimes give them credit for. Berries, in general, do have a reputation of being kind of . . . well, fragile. Which probably contributed to NM's concern that the strawberries would have frozen in the late frosts (since they were so early because of the warm winter) or if they weren't frozen, they'd rot because of last week's rain. It seems they did neither. Because they were plentiful. Mom and I together didn't even make it down half a row and it only took us about 20 minutes to pick a flat and a quart.
And it warmed my heart to hear the mother in the next row over telling her kids to "pick clean" and having two kids who couldn't have been older than 5 and 8 picking like crazy. No need to tell them only to pick red ones. No need to tell them to stop whining. No need to push them to keep going. I want kids like that someday. Seriously. I had almost started to doubt they existed any more.
I've already chopped up about 2 quarts and sugared them, and more strawberry baking is coming! Hooray!
Meanwhile, the gardens here are looking great! The cucumber plants look like they are ready to start creeping, and the tomatoes are beginning to flower.
And the garlic I planted is growing, at least . . . . I've discovered that garlic is supposed to be planted in the fall. Oops. I guess I should have looked that up before I decided to try it. But, hey, it's an experiment. We will see what happens.
And my herbs are filling the cup like crazy! I'm almost worried that I'm going to have to separate them before they even make it to our new back porch.
There are even still a few forget-me-nots left in the garden!
And, well, not garden related, but still fun: a bag of Cadbury eclairs showed up from the UK last week.
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