STRAWBERRIES
Supermarket strawberries are the ultimate tease. They are available all year long, and look perfect–big, red and handsome. But if you are seduced into buying a box, you learn the truth with the first bite. The vast majority of supermarket strawberries, like the vast majority of supermarket tomatoes, are handsome on the outside and tasteless on the inside. If you use them in recipes or add enough sweeteners or otherwise doll them up, the flavor will be reminiscent of real berries, but they are not the same.
Sadly, this is even true of supermarket strawberries that you buy in June, which is prime strawberry season. I have gone into supermarkets in June with a deep desire for local strawberries, only to find that the supermarkets offer the same big, red tasteless California fruits that are available at other times of the year.
There are local strawberries at farmers’ markets, of course, and a few supermarkets offer berries grown closer than California, but I have decided that my new plan for growing more edible species among my garden ornamentals will include strawberries. I grew up on real strawberries, which are most delicious when they are freshly picked and still warm from the June sunshine. This spring I aim to have that experience again.
The first decision to make is what kind of strawberry plants to buy. June bearing strawberries produce one crop of large berries per year, and tend to set “runners”, which produce offshoot plants. Everbearing and day neutral varieties produce fruits several times over the course of the growing season and set fewer runners. All three types need lots of sun, but the June bearing strawberries only set fruit in response to the increasing light of spring’s lengthening days. Everbearing and day neutral varieties do not have that requirement, so that they can set fruit even after the Summer Solstice, when the days begin to shorten gradually. Traditionally the June bearing strawberries produce larger fruit and greater quantities at once, but improved everbearing and day neutral cultivars feature increased fruit size and yield.
Most authorities recommend everbearing or day neutral types for gardeners with limited space, so if you are growing strawberries in strawberry jars or round, tiered beds, consider the everbearing types.
I am a traditionalist, so I think that I will probably start with June bearing plants. To paraphrase Ecclesiasticus, there is a season for everything. Growing up in an agricultural region, seasonal rhythms were ingrained in my psyche, so I don’t usually crave strawberries during peach or apple season. If I have enough June strawberries I put some in the freezer. That way I can satisfy my winter strawberry cravings by eating my own fruit rather than drooling longingly over catalog pictures.
My recent survey of the catalog offerings produced such a state of strawberry lust that I almost went out in search of supermarket strawberries. Fortunately I restrained myself and decided to buy twenty-five plants of a variety called ‘Honeoye’, which is renowned for great flavor. I think that I will plant them in two rows at the rear of my two front borders. For some reason the local critters patronize the front garden much less often. If the plants are less visible it will also be harder to see the netting that I will put over them to keep hungry birds away from the ripening fruit. My yard is extremely bird-friendly, so I am not depriving the birds of sustenance; I am simply ensuring that my labors are rewarded with strawberries.
If you have lots of room for strawberries, you can have the best of all possible worlds by mixing up early and late bearing June varieties with some everbearing types. Some of the nurseries offer package deals that include such a mix.
I just finished Old Herbaceous, a wonderful novel by English author Reginald Arkell. Fairly early in the book, the title character, Bert Pinnegar, later nicknamed “Old Herbaceous,” is a young estate gardener who earns the admiration of his employer, Mrs. Charteris, by forcing strawberry plants in the greenhouse so that the fruits are ready in April rather than June. Many decades later the elderly Pinnegar presents the even older Mrs. Charteris with a last offering of early strawberries. The old lady doesn’t recognize Pinnegar, but the strawberries trigger her memory. She caps both the novel and a lifelong platonic love story by saying, “Of course, we used to have early strawberries at the Manor, but only because Pinnegar, my head gardener, was a very exceptional man. Very exceptional!”
Have something exceptional in your garden by growing your own strawberries. Plants are widely available in nurseries and garden centers in the spring. If you want to get a jump on the season, try Miller Nurseries, 5060 West Lake Road, Canandaigua, NY 14424, (800) 836-9630 or www.millernurseries.com. Free catalog.