You may find yourself wondering, “How are those strawberry plants doing this year?”. Well, let me tell you! In the blog “Strawberry beds” there is a brief history of previous Strawberry experiences, how we built boxes and have been reaping the benefits.
Thankfully, last year’s strawberry beds have exceeded even our wildest hopes for them! They have simply Boomed! We have made so many strawberry delights ranging from Strawberry Pies to gallons of Strawberry Rhubarb jam.
Where as before Strawberries have always been the tip top fruit delicacy to use, saved only for special occasions, we have had plenty so we have been able to enjoy them in many different forms.
At first we were a little worried about how the strawberry plants would wake up after a hard Colville winter. If you’ve ever seen a dormant strawberry plant, you’d understand. Their leaves are dull and brittle, their beds a tangle of runners and dead leaves. But this spring erased all those winter fears.
Actually, the little plants start to take off as soon as the snow clears. They produce tons of runners each with a new strawberry plant at the end. This allows us to refresh older plants and replace the missing. We had buckets of excess plants, which we gladly shared with anyone looking to start their own strawberry patch.
From late July to October of last fall the little strawberry plants were in full swing producing roughly 3 gallons of perfectly ripe large red strawberries every three days. This is not including all the free ranging that goes on in-between. The little guys in particular love going down to the garden throughout the season, and helping themselves to the plump berries. The kids also delight in showing visiting friends, and assisting them in finding the biggest and reddest strawberries.
When a load of strawberries are picked they are washed and separated. Some we use for fresh tarts, cakes, chocolate strawberries ect. The rest we freeze to be used later and also to collect for a larger batch of Jam.
It is impossible to say which has been the best strawberry recipe, for there have been so many delicious ones. But Strawberry Pie is pretty hard to beat!
Here is the pie recipe I used- Super delicious!
We are eagerly looking forward to this year’s harvest, and have been able already to spot many of their cheery white flowers.
So to sumit up, the strawberries have been a highly productive part of our garden and greatly enjoyed. 5 years ago when we were still trying to grow strawberries in a dense slightly overgrown clump, we could never have foreseen such an overflow of the berries as we do now. Raised, manageable garden boxes are the only way to go!
We can praise the Lord for so richly blessing us with such bounty!
Rosehaven Homestead 