Strawberry Season Is in Full Swing!


The thing about gardening is that you never know what to expect from one year to the next. It’s just about impossible to have every crop do well at the same time, but the flip side is that, no matter how bad some things look, something is bound to go like gangbusters.

It balances out.

This year, though we’ve been struggling with our tomatoes and potatoes, the strawberries are looking better than they ever have before:


A quick correction: the established strawberries are looking better than ever. Those are the lush plants in the distance. The foreground is full of our newest strawberry plants, which haven’t taken off quite like we wished — at least not yet.

Anyway, the plantings from the three previous years are doing amazingly well this season and promise to bear big crops:


That’s a lot of strawberries just waiting to ripen. Since taking that photo we have put up our chicken wire fencing and covered the top with bird netting to protect the fruit. That doesn’t keep out the mice, and a bunch of our strawberries have been nibbled, but Smithy is doing his job and leaving evidence of his kills around for us to find. Though there’s still not much advancement on the lap-cat front, he will at least walk away from us instead of running.


Yesterday was our first round of strawberry picking, and we got several quarts of berries. Now the only question is how to best enjoy them: fresh, or in delicious baked goods? I’m thinking we should have enough for several batches of jam this year as well.

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