Strawberry Patch
Farmor has a great little strawberry patch in the front yard and this year I’ve assigned myself to make sure we get as many strawberries as possible. The season hasn’t been very good to us – cold and cloudy – so the berries would likely be few and small but I thought I’d give it my best shot to get as many as we can.
I wasn’t too happy when I discovered lots of unripe berries half-eaten. This was war! On went the bird net and into action went the ‘ripening scouting plan’.
Every second day I scout out strawberries to see when to pick. Normally it is best to wait for the strawberries to be ripe enough that they pop off the stem easily but I don’t have that luxury. Sometimes I pick the nearly-perfect ones but there are many I have to agonizingly leave behind for another day.
At the moment with each picking day I get two container loads of strawberries. The strawberries are sweet and have a lovely strong strawberry flavour. It is the cooler climate that makes Norwegian strawberries so wonderful. It helps the sugars in the fruit to create a delicious rich flavour. The strawberries have good texture, very robust – even though they melt in your mouth you still need to take a good bite out of them.
But there are always some causalities. Sometimes waiting too long allows the critters to get to them first. The thing that bugs me is that they never eat the whole thing. I’m sure they leave half-eaten strawberries just to taunt me.
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Meanwhile, back in Oz, I am watching the first of my strawberry flowers come out. I have already netted my crop – a hard lesson learned from last season! I have found success with worm castings… they seem to give the strawberries a kick along. Good luck. too bad we can;t do a taste comparison!
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from L-Jay:
We have been very lucky this year. Last Winter created an ice layer over strawberry crops and many died. In Tromsø and Harstad there were no more strawberries so there was a huge rush to buy the last plants. In Alta, most of the strawberry crops survived (including ours). We plant to start a little worm farm soon and I’m sure the strawberries will love the castings.
I visited Norway for the first time this year in July – not only did I fall in love with the country but also with the fragrant and sweet fruit. Most of all the strawberries and cherries. I have never enjoyed such aromatic strawberries – they were worth every Kroner!
Norsk Jordbaer are one of those heavenly little Norwegian secrets. Never in my life have I tasted Strawberries that are better than those in Norway.
Hei L-Jay, glad to find your blog and thanks for the nice pics of the strawberries, must be yummy!:)