Strawberry Fields. Forever. Please.

Doubtless God could have made
a better berry (than the strawberry), but
doubtless God never did.
-William Allen Butler

My William and I were discussing strawberries early in June as we weeded our expanded strawberry patch. Both of us agreed that there was nothing quite like the taste of a sun ripened strawberry picked and then immediately popped into the mouth. That is one of the many advantages we've discovered in growing our own berries. Our feeble effort with 50 barely surviving berry plants and a cold, wet spring 3 years ago has yielded hundreds of young plants that take up about 1/4 of the upper garden.

Not that strawberries are easy. We found that they need a lot of work - lots of manure, constant weeding, thorough picking, and slug control. (I say this with a wink, since we have never had success in the slug area. Except in feeding them, that is. We have tried everything - ducks, sharp sand, lime, the salt shaker, yes, even Papa's good homemade beer. They just keep on coming.) In the fall, they must be covered with a good layer of straw (thus their name), not hay or leaves. But the benefits are worth all the labor.

I am very grateful for the good year. We have heard that many growers were hurt by the late frost in May. Papa made a heroic effort and carefully watered all of the plants before the sun rose too high, thus saving our little patch. He had remembered the chapter in Laura Ingalls Wilder's book, Farmer Boy, when Father, Almanzo, and his siblings hurried out to the cornfield before sunrise to water the corn seedlings after a frost. One can learn a lot from good books.

Besides eating them fresh, we have had strawberry shortcake, strawberry-rhubarb sauce, and strawberry smoothies. (These have become a favorite with the boys.) I sliced up strawberries and put them over Edmund's pouf pancake yesterday, and he ate the entire pie plate full except for the slice he reluctantly "shared" with Tess. Over and over he kept exclaiming, "Yum!" I guess he liked it.

Tess and Mary have been wonderful helps with cleaning and cutting the berries. For years this was my job sometimes extending into the wee hours of the morning so as not to lose too many berries to spoilage. Yesterday we froze 8 quarts, added to the other 4 we had previously frozen.

Strawberry jam, of course, is a must, and I've tried four different types this year. William begged me to make freezer jam again, and so I made two kinds, one regular, and one lower sugar. These are softer in set, but have a fresh flavor and are simple to prepare.I did the same with the two cooked varieties, using one lower sugar recipe. I prefer the tarter jams myself. I've made strawberry-rhubarb jam in the past, but for some reason it is not as popular with the kids - unless I put it over freshly baked biscuits with a spoon of vanilla ice cream. And then there is my favorite...strawberry-rhubarb pie. Need I say anything else?