JUNE STRAWBERRIES
One day last week I had strawberries for lunch–nothing else, just strawberries. Why? Because I picked almost a quart from my garden and it was the very first time I had gotten such a large harvest all at once. Strawberries are best consumed as soon as possible after they are purchased or picked, so it was the best time. I seized the day and seized the strawberries. I harvested the fruits of my labors.
My father was a purposeful strawberry grower, digging out his eight by three-foot bed carefully and watching over the plants like a mother hen. Every three years he would pull them all out and start again, amending the soil generously and setting out new young strawberries. Needless to say, we had substantial harvests, which inevitably led to my parents’ annual strawberry shortcake fight. My mother liked strawberry shortcake made with buttery, lightly sweetened biscuits. My father preferred his berries and whipped cream with sponge cake. To keep peace in the house, we often abandoned the whole idea of biscuits and cake and simply swathed our strawberries in whipped cream.
My father was fond of saying that if he ever ran off with another woman, she would be someone who made shortcake with sponge cake. Fortunately, home wreckers equipped with sponge cakes were few and far between in our small town, allowing my parents to bicker about shortcake for a happy thirty-eight years.
My strawberry efforts are much more casual than my father’s. Two years ago, I bought thirty plants on a whim. They were one of the June bearing varieties, though I have no recollection of the varietal name. I installed them in a sunny part of the upper back garden, mostly because it is a place the groundhog does not frequent. I spaced the plants decently, but did not hill up soil mounds or rows, water beyond the time necessary for root establishment, or mulch with straw to keep the berries off the wet ground. The soil was rich from repeated amendment and mulched with cedar shreds.
The first year I did not cut off the young strawberries, as is sometimes recommended for maximum cropping in the second year. I harvested the small number of berries the new plants produced and was happy with the results. This year the harvest was amazing. I am hoping for more of the same next year. After that it will probably be time to rejuvenate the beds. By then I expect I’ll be so accustomed to wonderful June strawberries that I will be willing to do the work.
For those new to the strawberry world, there are three types of strawberries, all of which have their uses. My plants are “June bearing” types, which produce one crop a year in late spring. My father had “everbearing” strawberries that produced two or three crops during the season. “Day neutral” plants continue producing even as the days begin to shorten over the course of the summer. The advantage of everbearing and day neutral types is that while the first fruiting period generally does not produce quite as much fruit as produced by June bearing varieties, the output is more continuous. June bearing plants are also very likely to produce runners that result in daughter plants. This is great if you have the room for them. Everbearing and day neutral varieties produce few if any runners, a plus if you have limited space.
I grow my strawberries in a section of my cottage garden, surrounded by roses, to which strawberries are related. Most people set aside special beds with raised rows or soil hilled up around each plant. The big “no-no” in strawberry culture is to set plants in an area where members of the nightshade family, like tomatoes, peppers and eggplant, have been grown. These genera are prone to harboring a strawberry disease called verticillium wilt, which is fatal to the young plants. Strawberries can also be grown successfully in pots, particularly if you choose everbearing or day neutral varieties.
My June bearing plants produce abundant runners, which result in new plants. When runners appear, I wait until they root and develop a few leaves. Then I severe the connection between mother and daughter plants and transplant the offspring to a new location. This perpetuates my strawberry patch with little work.
Store-bought strawberries are invariably imported from somewhere else–usually California–even during the local strawberry season. My advice is to get your strawberries at a local farmers’ market or to grow your own. You can be casual, like me, and still get a good harvest, so don’t be put off by long lists of cultural requirements. Sun, good soil, regular moisture and, possibly, bird netting are all you really need. Most nurseries and garden centers stock young plants, but for a good selection try Miller Nurseries, 5060 West Lake Road, Canandaigua, NJ 14424; (800) 836-9630; www.millernurseries.com.