Bountiful Berries
Willowtree Strawberries
This year we started picking strawberries on Thursday June 10, which was 10 days earlier than last year. From the beginning the strawberries were sweet and juicy, with little damage from the spring frost. For the most part the king bloom berries (from the primary bloom in each flower cluster), were very large and perfect for dipping in chocolate. The berries this year are all sweet with a nice rich red color, because they got lots of sun especially the berries from “Willowtree special variety”, my personal favorite of the 8 varieties we grow. I wait for these berries each year because this variety produces very large but VERY VERY sweet and juicy plump berries.
"Willowtree Special"
We had many pickers helping us to pick all the berries; they have been picking a couple hundred flats of strawberries a day. That is a lot of hard work and time spent kneeling in the rows in the hot sun. The field was also full of U-pickers for a couple weeks, with people of all ages coming to pick berries to make jams and strawberry shortcake. I met one man who was 91 years young and still out picking his own flats of berries. Amazing!!!
Along with still picking strawberries we are now picking raspberries and black raspberries, sweet peas, green and yellow beans, cucumbers, zucchini, broccoli, cauliflower, leaf lettuce, garlic and fresh basil. The picking board is starting to get full, with all the different crops which must be picked fresh each day.