strawberries

Sorry about the blogging hiatus over here. I've spent the last week catching up from our trip. But now the laundry is done, the garden is weeded, and my kitchen floor is mopped. So, here we go again.


When we bought our house 5 years ago (wow, has it really been that long?), one of our first major gardening projects was to convert the side yard from a blank grass pallette into a pond garden with an arbor at the entrance. The major hardscaping was the easy part, filling in all of that now-empty dirt with a lush garden was the hard part. It's taken this long, but I think we're pretty much there. But it has taken a lot of replanting, transplanting, and giving up on certain species (hybrid roses...definitely not my thing. Or Irish Moss, alliums, gladiolus...this list goes on). One of the only plants which has been perfect from the start is the strawberry patch stretching down the one side. It must be just the right amount of shade combined with the heavy layers of mulch we faithfully apply each year. These berries just keep growing. And spreading.

Then last year we almost killed them. The summer grew hot. Liam was a fussy little thing. And the weeds kept growing. Up and over the strawberry patch. When Gabriel and I finally took care of them in the early fall, many of the plants had shriveled up.

I watched them, the remnant, through the winter, huddling under the snow and ice. But then this spring they popped back up, as they always do. And once again they're growing. And spreading.

And I'm weeding.

The strawberry crop this year has been pretty steady, but definitely not by the bucketful like last year. The slugs have also been a problem. Good thing we now have chickens who happily search out the little slimies and slurp them up.

And so, we've been enjoying fresh strawberries. Vine ripened.

Liam loves them. And so does Gabriel. Me, too.
The best part of growing your own berries is finding fun new ways to enjoy them. Like this ice cream recipe from the June 2009 issue of Everyday Food.

Perfect with a slice of Angel Food Cake (from Baking Illustrated) and extra sliced berries.