Thursday, November 11, 2010

It's Not Even Summer Yet....

and yesterday morning I picked the first of the strawberries & savoured their sun warmed, sweet, juicy goodness. There is nothing quite like the taste of strawberries grown in the home garden, for some reason they are always sweeter than when you buy them at the supermarket.

I doubt that my wee pot will ever produce the amount required to give the family a decent bowl full each all at the same time, but I guess we can take turns picking & eating them as they ripen.



A side note;
There may be a very valid reason for home grown strawberries always tasting sweeter. Commercially grown strawberries are often picked for their keeping qualities. Strawberries don't last well so pickers will pick under conditions that help them keep through the sorting, packing & shipping process ensuring that they arrive at the market in peak conditions. This often involves picking early in the morning or on a cool cloudy day.

When sun is on fruit it causes the natural fruit sugars to rise & aid with the ripening process. When the weather is cooler or cloudy fruit takes longer to ripen. So it makes sense that when you are picking home grown strawberries on a sunny day they are always going to taste sweeter.

4 comments:

angelinabeadalina said...

Turns? What is this "taking turns" of which you speak? Ain't no turns when it comes to ripe strawberries, woman, lol. So, around here, we usually start getting strawberries from local farms in May... your schedule is just about the same as ours. Is your plant one that will bear fruit for a long time?

P.S. I'm hopeless at remembering gardening stuff. The only reason I remember when strawberries and peaches usually ripen is that Katie's birthday cake often involves strawberries in some way and James' birthday gets peaches!

Deb said...

LOL! I was trying to be nice Ang. Did you notice the 'guess'- it was typed with hesitation ;)
What I said in when questioned as to why I hadn't saved the second one for Gabriela or Allan however was something along the lines of I bought the plant's & the potting mix to fill the pot...I planted the things & I am the one who waters them every day. Those darn strawberries had MY name on them....

Besides I wanted to save myself the agony of watching a grown man & a 13 year old bicker over who was getting strawberry #2 .lol!

Sharon Driscoll said...

Yummmmmmm!

Pam @ The Blue Between said...

yum. I'll have to live summer vicariously through you ;)