We picked two big mixing bowls of strawberries, today. The berries were huge huge and sweet and still warm from the sun.
I chopped seven cups for the freezer. Martha Stewart would freeze them nicely on cookie sheets, then package them up once they were frozen, so they didn’t stick together. I am not Martha Stewart. I pre-measure the packages to the sizes my recipes call for, throw them in vacuum-sealer baggies, and go to town. We just break them up and throw them in the blender for smoothies, anyways, or thaw them for baking and such.
This is way beyond the hundred mile diet. This is a zero mile diet. Those berries came from literally just out my front door!
We planted about 100 plants in four little patches, in 2011. We got fifty of an everbearing variety, and fifty of a June bearing variety. For whatever reason, all of the plants are going nuts right now. Last week, we put seven cups in the freezer, plus I took strawberries to work for lunches. This week was much the same; seven cups for the freezer, plus plenty to eat!
The taste is incomparable.
Jealous. I started mine last fall and this year the plants are going crazy setting runners, but not so many berries. Baby’s getting big! So fast!
You’ll have a good year next year, hopefully 🙂 I’m not a huge fan of strawberries from the store, but strawberries from my front yard are another matter entirely. Same with peas, actually.
Baby is growing like a weed. Apparently they do that 😉
They look delicious! I’m growing some in a container on our porch and we’ve had a few berries, but the caterpillars have gotten at the leaves. We found a nice big patch of wild berries down the road, but they are so tiny it takes about 10 to make a mouthful!
Wild strawberries are sooooo good, but they take so much effort for a tiny reward! I am glad to have a supply of the easy-pick (domesticated) ones!
I am envious of your strawberry crop. I am unable to grow anything due to not having a yard and I failed at container gardening. Maybe you can send me a few cups this way. 🙂
I suspect that would be a looong drive 😉
I love your property and the strawberries look great, too 😉
Aw, thanks 🙂
Beautiful, they looks sweet too 🙂
They sure are!
Those are gorgeous!!!
Kristen from The Road to Domestication
http://www.theroadtodomestication.com
Oh neat our strawberries are in a circle too. I planted them around a little shrub that was in the side yard. When the shrub died I planted some annual flowers in there. This year I will do more strawberries in there but still some flowers so the HOA doesn’t complain.
Luckily, we don’t have an HOA, and our neighbors approve of growing stuff, so it’s not an issue around here 🙂 Each of the round strawberry beds (there are four) have some other ‘thing’ growing in the center of the bed…it started out as cherries and roses, but one of the roses fared poorly, so now that bed has irises in it.
It sounds like a bumper crop. I love strawberries. I am hoping that I can make some strawberry freezer jelly. It has been decades since I made it. I don’t even remember where I put my recipe. We replanted our strawberry patch this year. Your toddler looks like a real fan of them too. It is a cute picture.
Honey
It was a good year, and yes, the little guy loves berries of any description.