June – Sacrificing the First Born

There is a theory about strawberry plants that if you don’t let them bear fruit the first year, they will put down better roots, become better established plants and produce better/larger fruit the following year.  I get the principal of it, but pinching off blossoms and berries in the first year is hard to do.  It’s like sacrificing the first born, hoping the 2nd born will be better for it.  I’m a first born, so I’ll leave it at that…

I lopped off those blossoms and berries and got zero yield this year.  No strawberries for jam or to freeze for my morning yogurt or to go with my evening ice cream?  Clearly unacceptable!  So we went to Highland Orchards (again) and picked twelve pounds of berries that are so sweet they taste like cotton candy.

Trimmed, washed and frozen on cookie sheets – I dumped them into Ziploc bags and now – thank goodness I can have fruit with my ice cream at night (so I can at least pretend that it’s healthy!).

And I’ll wait until next year to see if the 2nd born turns out better for sacrificing the first year’s growth.  The jury is still out on that.

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The strawberry plants have grown since I planted them.
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It’s such a shame to pinch these off, hoping for a better crop next year.
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Our pick-your-own haul of 8 quarts
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Highland Orchards has reusable pick-your-own buckets, so we’ll go back with these when it’s blueberry season.
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Frozen and ready to stick in the freezer.
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The strawberry tops, ready to give the “girls.” Our hens love kitchen scraps.

 

 

3 thoughts on “June – Sacrificing the First Born

  1. Adding strawberries makes everything healthier — ice cream, shortcake, margaritas…. And they have like no calories, so as long as you add them to other things, such as ice cream, shortcake and margaritas, those other things assume the character of the strawberries and have no calories too! You may safely consume as much of these other things as you want, guilt-free, without gaining an ounce!

    PS. Don’t look this up, just take my word for it.

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  2. Interesting. I’m allergic to strawberries but I often try to sneak them into my diet. Naturally I do pay for my constant experimentation. Note to all allergies to go away. Not in seven years, not in 60+ years.
    Have an awesome Summer. Lizann.
    Love you cousin 😍❤️

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