STRAWBERRIES!!

My (Jason) great-grandfather was a produce farmer in Bayfield, Wisconsin.  He was apparently known for his ability to rehabilitate abused farms, his absolute scrupulous honesty, and his strawberries.  It's nice to have an ancestor to aspire to!  My mom tells a story from her childhood wherein a person came out of the house looking for him, and she happened to know he was in the packing shed preparing strawberries for market.  She responded to the inquiry with the following humorous jab intended for his ears:  "He's out in the shed putting the big strawberries on top."  He reportedly heard this joke and didn't think it one bit funny; he took time out of his packing job to come out into the yard and set the record sternly straight.  She reports that this was the only time her gentle and appreciative grandfather was ever angry with her.

Well, there is no deception in these photos; the bowls are full of berries just the way we picked them from our smattering of strawberry beds of various and sundry shapes and sizes.  So far we have picked strawberries every day this week, and most of those days have ended with a batch or two of jam in the freezer or on the canning shelves, plus the occasional tray of whole strawberries for freezing along with a few containers of sliced for the same (smoothies, here we come!).  And plenty go into our bellies before any of the above takes place. We're looking forward to drying some in the solar dryer soon. Today's harvest gave us enough for 3 large trays of whole berries, 10 containers of sliced berries, and 12 containers of jam.  This was after we ate a bunch and Kali's soccer teammates were here tearing around the property and picking, eating AND tromping on strawberries.

I wouldn't say these gems have spilled across our threshold without effort.  Much ground preparation, transplanting, watering, tending, and weeding have gone into the plantings.  But a sum total of perhaps thirty dollars of actual money have been directly spent on them for 50 plants purchased last spring from Gardens Alive (Fort Laramie, Sparkle Supreme) and a few bucks for straw.  We had already had an expanding planting from crowns dug from a neighbor's patch the year before (Honey-O), and honestly so far this has constituted perhaps 85% of this year's harvest (and the flavor is excellent), though that number may change when the Sparkle Supremes come on, since the plants look very vigorous, a lot of fruit has been set, and they are just starting to blush.  The Fort Laramies are not doing as much...I have the impression they might like the weather better in Wyoming.

Our criteria for when we can consider selling some strawberries (or other crop) is when we have so many we are beginning to become sick of them.  We're not there yet, but it won't take too much more for us to feel like we have so many we can't keep up with the processing, which is more or less the same thing I guess.  I expect the plantings to only increase in size and productivity by next year, so stay tuned if you might be interested in trading for or buying picked or pick-your-own strawberries, possibly beginning next spring!