The Farmer is coming in from the Strawberry Patch.today. This farm has a small patch. With limited space the Farmer fits things in where he can. The harvest this year has been only fair. The patch is old and needs to be taken up and replanted. You can take and divide the plants and make new patches so you don't have to through them away.
When there are berries they are delicious. These are usually small secondary berries the are incredibly flavorful and not like the large strawberry in the store that looks wonderful but which is often white on the inside and insipid in taste.
If you are not use to strawberry in nature you may be surprised to see stubby little plants lying on the ground. We lose a lot the crops to slugs and probably chipmunks that can easily nibble on the fruit. The name strawberry comes from the idea of putting straw down around the hills so that the fruit would rest on straw and be lifted up off the ground away from the slugs. I would say this is only partly successful.
Farmers will plant large fields with mounds, plastic and lots of sprays to grow those fruit you see in the store. These are one of the most contaminated foods when it comes to pesticides and chemical fertilizers.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garden_strawberry
Learn more about strawberry here.
Thought the farm would show off 8 foot tall sugar snap pea plants and
new potatoes which will be featured on a future post.
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