Patience has paid off, today we picked 2 overflowing flats of strawberries!! We had hoped to pick the first strawberry flat of the season on Monday, but it seems Mother Nature decided to take a break from spring, and go back to winter. Anticipating the snow, we were able to get all the strawberries covered and the garden plants inside the greenhouse. Snow actually provides good insulation for the berries so our worries were minimal at first, but the heavy wet snow today draws concerns over too much weight pushing down on the delicate blossoms. It is still too early to judge how much the recent weather will affect the coming crop—till then we just have to sit back and enjoy a story from Ramon with a glass of strawberry wine and few (or more!) of the juicy-sweet berries.
Ramon, our chief berry picker, stopped in to share a humorous story about covering the fields the day before. If you have ever seen the rare sight that is Ramon laughing, you know it is something special. For the past few days, he was getting increasingly irritated at the Robins hopping up and down the field taking little pecks at the almost ripe strawberries. Having enough of their antics, he scared the birds away and decided to cover the berries early on Sunday afternoon. Checking on the fields a few hours later, the Robins were back, naturally, but the covered rows caught them completely off guard. They were hopping and bobbing around trying as hard as they could to figure out where the berries had gone—the wind blowing waves through the covers sending Robins tumbling. We gave the birds a little credit for determination, but could not help laughing! Ramon – 1, Robins – 0.
Picking - The First Phase of Wine
Greendance 